Trouble Returns
by CompleteBlackout
Summary: When an old friend of the majority of the glass house members comes back to town, will it be just for a social visit or to bring havoc to the vampires?
1. Mystery Visitor

**Chapter 1**

**Claire's POV**

The past few weeks had been relatively quiet, at least for Morganville standards. My days had basically consisted of going to school and working at the lab with Myrnin. He'd been his usual crazy self and I'd had enough. He was spouting on about some stupid idea he'd had but I couldn't understand what he was trying to explain. Other than that I'd been hanging out at home with my roommates and arguing about basic, mundane things like whose turn it was to do the dishes.

Today, Shane and I were drowsily cuddling on the couch when the doorbell rang. Classes had finished early and it was Shane's day off, neither of us wanted to move.

"Let Michael get it," Shane whispered in my ear.

"Mmm…" I replied not really paying attention.

"Michael," Shane called when it rang again.

"I don't think he's home," I said. I heard Shane make a noise of irritation in the back of his throat. "I'll get it."

"No," he smiled, playfully pulling me closer.

"It could be important." To both Shane and my own frustration I stood up and went to get the door. Although it was still daylight outside, I was apprehensive. When someone turned up at your door unannounced in Morganville it was never good news.

The doorbell rang again. Someone was impatient. When I swung the door open, I wasn't expecting who was stood there. Instead of an obviously angry vampire there was a blonde girl tapping her foot impatiently. Great. I'd take a vampire any day than one of Monica's friend.

"Look whatever Monica's sent you here to do I'm not interested," I said and began to swing the door shut.

"Monica? Like I'd have anything to do with that bitch," she replied which made me hesitate. I heard Shane get up from the sofa and begin to walk to the front door. He must have heard the mention of Monica's name. If she was lying, it probably wasn't going to end well for her. Shane was so protective lately

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Claire, what's going- Taylor?" He said.

"Shane," she said smiling. Without an invitation she stepped inside and hugged him. "It's so good to see you."

"Yeah you too."

She pulled away and looked at me. "This one's new," she stated.

"This is Claire, my girlfriend."

"It's nice to meet you," she said. Before I knew it she engulfed me in a hug as well.

"Right. Who are you?"

"I'm Taylor. So where's Eve? And Michael," she asked practically ignoring my question.

"Eve's at work and I have no idea where Michael is. What are you doing here?" Shane asked.

"I was in the area…" she said walking down the corridor. I looked up at Shane confused. Nobody was ever just in the area in Morganville. All he did was shrug and follow her as she entered the kitchen. "Nothing's changed much around here."

As we came in the kitchen, Taylor hopped up and sat on the counter. "Well…" Shane said. "Actually, before Michael gets home there's something you should know. Michael's a-"

"Vampire," she finished. I looked from her to Shane because I thought she was joking. Clearly she wasn't because she continued, "I know. Amelie told me the day it happened. You know the rules."

"Oh yeah of course. I didn't think."

I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about but before I could ask I heard the front door slam shut. "Yo I'm home," I heard the familiar voice of my gothic roommate call. "Is anyone in?"

"In the kitchen," Shane and I yelled at the same time.

Eve must have been shopping because she came into the kitchen with numerous bags in her hand. She was jabbering on about something or rather but stopped instantly when she saw the girl sat on the counter.

"Oh my God Taylor," she said excitedly. Immediately she dropped her bags and ran across the kitchen to her at the same time as Taylor jumped down. With a lot of jumping and screaming they hugged each other. I couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Eve was my best friend and she hadn't so much as looked at me since she arrived. "I can't believe you're here. You should have called."

"I know but I thought it'd be better to surprise you," Taylor said pushing her at arms length. "Loving the outfit by the way Eve."

"Thanks. I bought some other stuff today. Want to come and give me your opinion?" Eve asked.

"Come on Eve," Shane said. "She just got here."

"No it's fine. I'd love to Eve. Lead the way."

Excitedly Eve picked up her bags and took Taylor's hand, leading her out of the kitchen. I sighed and miserably sunk down into a chair. It looked like another Kim situation was happening and I was still feeling the affects of what happened last time.

"What's the matter grumpy?" Shane asked kissing the top of my head and then going to the fridge.

"Nothing," I lied. Shane set two cans of coke on the table and sat down opposite me.

He had just opened his mouth to say something when the backdoor opened and Michael rushed in. "Hey," he said removing his hat and jacket.

"Sup man," Shane said. "Where've you been?"

"Council meeting."

"How come I didn't know about it?" I asked annoyed.

Michael gave me a long look and then said, "It's nothing important. Where's Eve?"

"She's upstairs," I mumbled.

"You'll never guess who's here." Shane said grinning.

"Who?" Michael asked. There was a frown encroaching on his forehead.

"Taylor."

"No way," he said, the frown completely disappearing. "Where?"

"Upstairs with Eve," Shane replied. Michael had gone before the sentence had completely left Shane's mouth. "What?" he asked me when I began to stare at him.

"What's the big deal with her?" I asked. There was a heavy sense of grouchiness leaking through into my voice but I couldn't help it. I was upset that everyone knew what was going on and I didn't.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean why is everyone falling all over her? Who exactly is she?"

Shane laughed a little and I opened my can. "That's a long story."

"I've got time."

"Taylor is…" he started to say but stopped seemingly a loss for words. "Well, I guess you could call her a vampire hunter of sorts."

* * *

><p><strong>So this is my first time at posting something I've written. I'll take any constructive critism you have so please go ahead and review. Tell me what you thought and I hope you enjoy the story. I'll try and post the next chapter sometime this week.<br>Thank you.  
>Paige<strong>


	2. Now We're Really In Trouble

**Chapter 2**

**"_Taylor is…" he started to say but stopped seemingly a loss for words. "Well, I guess you could call her a vampire hunter of sorts."_**

I'd just taken a sip and that sentence caused me to cough and choke uncontrollably. I couldn't quite catch my breath and Shane had to stand up and pat me on the back until I managed to stop. A state of shock forced me into silence but not for long.

"Are you okay Claire?" Shane asked worried.

"What do you mean vampire hunter?" I asked eyes wide. I couldn't believe this. Amelie would flip. "We have to warn Amelie. Oh my God.

Michael. We have to warn Michael. He's up there with her now."

"Calm down Claire," Shane sighed and walked into the living room, seemingly not bothered by the whole situation.

"Calm down. How can I calm down? If Amelie finds out we're harbouring a vampire hunter she'll kill us."

"No she won't," he said as he blasted the zombies that appeared on screen. "Amelie's fully aware of who she is."

"What-" I tried to say but Eve interrupted me.

"Claire bear, want to help me make dinner?" She bounded down the stairs closely followed by Michael who was hugging Taylor. So now she wanted to acknowledge me? Eve really was bad at timing. I didn't really want to but at the same time, I liked not having food poisoning.

"What are you making?"

"I'm not sure. Is there anything you want Taylor?" Eve asked.

"Not if you're cooking," she half joked. "Well it's still light outside. Get some take out. My treat, it's the least I could do."

"Sounds good to me," Shane piped in. "I'll order. Pizza sound okay to everyone?" He was answered with a chorus of 'sure' and 'hell yeah.'

"And after we can all catch up," Eve said excitedly.

"Yeah," Michael agreed. "You're staying with us right?" Great. So not only was the killer eating with us, she was staying in our house.

"I don't know. I don't want to put you guys out."

"You won't," Eve said. "You can sleep in my room. I'll stay in Michaels. It'll be fun. Just like old times."

She looked at them both and then said, "Sure, why not."

"I don't think that's such a good idea." I didn't realise that I'd said it aloud until Michael and Eve looked at me.

"Why not?" Eve asked defensively.

"Because…"

"Don't worry. It's cool," Taylor said.

"No it's not," Eve said. "Claire what do you mean?"

Crap. "She's a vampire hunter Eve. If Amelie or Oliver find out she's here then we're all in trouble," I blurted out unable to control myself any longer.

"Claire," Michael stepped in. "Amelie knows she's here. That's what the meeting was about."

"But she's-"

"It's fine. Amelie told us to let her stay here. Not that she needs to tell us that because Taylor's our friend," he concluded.

"I don't understand," I confessed.

"Told you," Shane said coming back into the room. "It's a long story. What are you doing?" He turned his attention from us to Taylor who'd picked up his controller whilst we were talking and sat down on the couch.

"I'm about to wipe your high scores off the face of the earth," she replied grinning.

"Good luck with that. Move over." She scooted down the sofa and handed Shane another controller. This challenge meant that Shane was now completely distracted from our conversation. They were both intent on what was happening on the screen.

"Will someone please explain to me what is going on?" I asked with a raised voice.

"All in good time," a smooth voice said from behind. It caused all of us to jump, even Michael. We turned to see Amelie stood at the bottom of the stairs.

"Amelie," I whispered. That was it, we were dead.

"Claire," she returned. "I see you've met young Taylor."

"I'm nineteen now actually," she said putting the controller down because Shane had paused the game. There was something in her voice that made me freeze. She spoke to Amelie so casually and carefree. Nobody did that.

I expected Amelie to make a scolding remark at her tone but she instead said, "Right you are," with a thin smile on her face.

"I take it this isn't just a social visit," Taylor said walking over to Amelie.

"You know me too well," Amelie laughed. Actually laughed. "Shall we?"

"Of course." I watched them both as they walked up the stairs presumably to the secret room. The rest of my housemates didn't look surprised. In fact Michael went to pick up his guitar, Shane continued playing on his Xbox and Eve picked up a magazine leaving me stood on my own.

Annoyed that no one had told me anything about what was going on I retrieved my backpack from the hall and sat on the sofa, the opposite end from Shane. I silently got out my textbook and read it even though I already knew all the information it contained and probably more.

Amelie was nowhere to be seen when Taylor descended the stairs half an hour after she'd left. She had a frown on her face and looked as if she was deep in thought. Without a word she came into the living room and sat down on the floor in front of Michael.

When she said nothing, Eve who couldn't resist the latest gossip asked, "So what did the Ice Bitch want?"

Taylor looked up at her. "Nothing that you need worry about Gothica," she said smiling. "Apart from one thing. She wanted me to tell you that there's going to be a party on Friday night to 'welcome me back'. I'll imagine you'll want to go shopping for that."

Eve squealed with excitement. "Of course. It's been ages since I've been shopping with someone who actually cares about fashion. No offence Claire but sometimes you're really no help at all. We'll all go tomorrow. Not you two," Eve said gesturing to the two males in the room. "We'll pick something out for you."

"Great," Shane said sarcastically. "No it'll be fun I guess. Don't you think Claire?"

"Umm… Yeah I guess. But I'm not sure if I can go."

"Why not?" Eve, Shane and Michael asked me at the same time.

"I have a test soon and I really should study-"

"You have to," Taylor said looking apologetic. "It's not optional. Amelie told me that she needs the most important people in Morganville there."

"Well that's sorted then," Eve said. We'll go shopping at ten. You don't have class tomorrow do you Claire?"

"No," I sighed.

"Good. I'm so excited."

"You and Claire will have to shopping tomorrow. I can't make it," Taylor sighed. She looked really disappointed. I wouldn't be. In fact, I'd give anything to be able to trade places with her. Eve was right, shopping really wasn't my thing.

"Why not? I've never heard you turn down an opportunity to shop before," Eve said grumpily.

"I have to work," she answered. Work? She'd only been in town a couple of hours how could she have a job? Unless… Amelie. She must have given it to her. Well now she was employed there was no telling how long she was going to be here for. Fantastic.

Once again, the others didn't seem to question it. "Aww that sucks," Eve mumbled.

"So does this town," Shane added before turning back to the game.

I smiled. Trust Shane. "Well Claire Bear, looks like it's just the two of us."

"Yeah," I said trying to hide the fact that I was glad with a look that I hope conveyed disappointment.

"Ohh, is there a theme?" Eve asked seemingly more excited than before at the idea.

"Not really," Taylor said smiling. "But it is black tie so Shane and Michael will have to wear suits." Michael and Shane groaned. It was slightly amusing to see the horror cross their faces. I was pretty sure that Shane would rather fight ten thirsty vampires than be forced to dress up and comb his hair. "By the way Michael, she asked if you could play a couple of songs."

"Sure," he said. He didn't look completely on board with the whole suit idea but I thought he'd come around more than Shane had or would. "Come on, let's eat." The pizzas had gotten here twenty minutes ago but Michael thought we should wait for Taylor before we ate.

We all sat at the table in the dining room. Plates were already set on the table thanks to Eve. "So you and Michael huh?" Taylor said after a few minutes of comfortable silence. Eve nodded and leant into Michael embrace. "I'm glad. It's about time. I've been telling Eve for long enough that you two would be good together.

"Well that's enough about us," Eve said for some reason embarrassed. "What about you? Anyone caught your eye recently?"

"Actually, I'm married now."

"What?" Eve exclaimed loudly. "When? Who? Where did you meet him?"

"Eve chill. You're going to give yourself and aneurysm. One question at a time."

"Okay," Eve said and breathed deeply. "First, name."

"Well his name's Luke."

"And where did you meet him?"

"London."

"So he's English?"

"Yes."

"Nice," Eve said approvingly. Then she turned to Michael. "I think you'd be cute with an English accent."

"Saying I'm not cute are we?" Michael retorted.

"Of course not sweetie." She kissed him gently but as she pulled away, Michael pulled her back.

After about ten seconds Shane said, "Get a room."

"I second that," Taylor said.

"Shut it wifey," Eve said smiling.

"Hey Shane's not that girly," she said making everyone but Shane laugh.

"So didn't feel like bringing your other half along then," Michael said diffusing the banter.

"No. I thought I'd fly solo on this one."

"Do you have a photo at least?" Eve asked standing.

"Yeah here you go," Taylor replied handing Eve her phone.

"Wow, proper hottie."

"I know." She smiled and collected everyone's plates up. Michael of course protested and helped her into the kitchen.

"Wow," Eve whispered to Shane and I. "Who'd of thought that one would ever be tied down to another human being."

"I know," Shane said in the same hushed tones. "It's weird."

"You guys don't mind if I go to bed do you?" she asked with a perfectly timed yawn as she came back into the room. "It's been a long day."

"Of course not," Eve said. "I'll show you up." Eve took her hand and led her upstairs.

Shane stood up and pulled me over to the sofa with him. Usually being with him would stop me worrying about everything but I couldn't help it. I didn't have any answers yet. So I decided that in the morning, before Eve took me shopping, I would go and see Amelie. After all I'd done for her, she owed me.

* * *

><p><strong>I got too excited to post this later in the week so here you go, chapter 2. I tried to make this one a little longer.<br>Thanks again.  
>Please review xD<strong>


	3. Early Mornings

**Chapter 3 **

**Taylor POV**

When I awoke something felt strange. I opened my eyes quickly and realised what it was. This wasn't my room. It was Eve's. I was back in Morganville. How could I forget that? I looked over at the clock on the bedside table.

Five AM. At least I could get everything over and done with. Silently, I slipped out of bed and took the opportunity to grab a shower. After that, I went to the kitchen and grabbed some coffee. Two cups later and I was a little more awake. I crept through the hallway to the front door where I shut it softly.

As promised by Amelie, there was a car parked on the curb next to Eve's hearse. It was black and even in the dim light you could tell it was expensive. The keys were already in the ignition. It was funny that in Morganville you needn't worry about your car being stolen at night because any thieves were likely to be killed in the process.

The car was fast. I was lucky that hardly anyone was on the roads and I really got to test it out, ignoring the signals on the traffic lights. I always got carried away with cars and spent way too much money on them. At home I had three Lamborghinis. Luke thought I was completely insane but they were just so gorgeous.

I snapped out of it when I realised the sun was now up in the sky. Looking around, I noticed for the first time where I was. I pulled the car over and stepped out of the car. Shocked, I crossed to the other side of the road and stood in front of the house.

**_Flashback_**

_Michael and I were laughing loudly whilst walking down the street. We'd just been to the cinema and we were discussing how bad the special effects were in the horror movie we'd seen. Realistically, we knew that we should have been trying not to draw attention to ourselves but we didn't really care._

"_And did you see when that guy got his hand cut off?" Michael said laughing louder._

"_I know. It looked like someone was just squirting a ketchup bottle," I said. He started to say something else but I cut him off. "Michael, look."_

"_What is it?" he asked. I didn't need to tell him because he looked up the street to where I was pointing and gasped. Shane's house… was on fire. Without another word he took off sprinting down the street. It would have been a problem for any other girl because Michael was fast but I however was just as fast as him. I managed to catch up with him in a matter of seconds._

_When we skidded to a halt in front of Shane's house we just stood there for a moment staring into the blaze. "Shane," Michael yelled and started to run towards the house but I stopped him. _

"_You can't go in there," I said._

"_I have to Tay. Shane could be in there."_

"_Fine I'm coming with you."_

"_No. Call 911. I'll be back. I promise." And with that he kissed me gently on the forehead and raced off into the flames_

_Shaking I called 911. Someone must have already called them because I could hear sirens in the distance. Nonetheless I called them again. If not just to shout at them and tell them to hurry up. _

_Just as the fire trucks pulled up, a couple of minutes after Michael had gone in, he staggered out supporting Shane as well. I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to contain my sobs. Rushing towards them I helped Michael get Shane to the curb as the fire men ran past us lugging a hose._

_His breathing was laboured but after a few attempts he managed to get out what he was trying to say before he fell unconscious. "Alyssa," he choked. "She's still in there."_

**_End of flashback_**

"Oh Lyss," I sighed with tears in my eyes. Being back made it real all over again. Michael and I had tried to go in to get her but three very big fire men restrained us as Shane was taken to hospital in an ambulance. I breathed in deeply and reminded myself that the past was the past and there was nothing I could do to change it. It didn't help.

**Claire POV**

I'd set my alarm for eight that morning but I must have turned it off. I woke up at nine, annoyed that my plans had been delayed. I jumped out of bed causing Shane to wake up which he wasn't very happy about. However he looked at the clock, groaned and rolled over. He fell back to sleep again practically straight away.

I showered and dressed in the bathroom and raced down the stairs. "Woah, where's the fire," Michael said from the living room. I ignored him and ran out of the front door, automatically grabbing my bag and keys.

I was in a hurry so when Grandma Day stopped me to invite me in for a chat I was a little irritated. But I tried to be polite and said, "No thank you," before asking her if I could 'use her bathroom.'

I knocked on the door and waited for an answer. "Yes," was the reply. Amelie was sat at her desk reading a file. I didn't say anything but I shut the door behind me and waited. "What can I do for you Claire? Or do I even need to ask?"

"I was… wondering…. about Taylor?" I managed to stutter out.

"Yes I thought you would be," she said closing the file and putting it to one side. "There's nothing you need to worry about."

"Amelie," I said deciding to play it light. "I respect that but I don't like being out of the loop." She sighed and gestured for me to sit down. I did, leaning back in my seat to try and make myself look less intent than I actually was. Though I knew Amelie would see straight through that.

"What have you been told so far?"

"Well… Shane said she was… a vampire hunter." I was nervous at how Amelie would react to hearing that.

To my surprise she laughed a little. I'd never seen Amelie laugh before but since Taylor had been in town she'd done it twice. This girl seemed to have a weird affect on her. "Mr Collins does love to make things seem more dramatic than they are. But I guess in a sense he's right."

"So…" I started as a gesture for her to continue.

"You're not going to let this go are you?" she asked. I shook my head. "Well I'll start from the beginning. I haven't got long mind. Her full name is Taylor Ruby Anderson. Her parents moved to Morganville when Taylor was a one year old. She was an only child. I believe her mother could not conceive anymore children. They were a relatively quiet family. No trouble at all.

"They were protected by a vampire called Matilda who never really had any complaints about them. Until Taylor got older that is. Matilda had to often battle with Brandon in Taylor's later teenage years. Not that she really minded. I think she was quite fond of the girl. She reminded Matilda of a younger version of herself."

"Why did Matilda have to fight with Brandon?" Just mentioning the late vampire's name sent shivers down my spine. It made me think about the time Shane was sentenced to death for his murder.

"You know that Shane blamed Monica for his sister's death. Well so did Taylor. Only she acted on it a lot more frequently. Taylor's always been fast. An extremely good fighter and she often picked one with Monica. Of course Monica ran straight to Brandon but like I said Taylor was a good fighter.

"She has incredibly good reflexes. As fast as a vampire and she has the technique to back it up. Taylor's parents died in a car accident not long after Shane left Morganville. She completely lost her mind. She had no one and she was dangerous. I took Taylor under my own protection because it was the safest thing for her. She could have killed a lot of vampires but she has a good head on her shoulders and a big heart."

"So why did you let her leave Morganville?" I asked. I was curious because I wondered what Taylor had done that made her more able to leave than I was.

"Because although she did help me she was also a threat. When she asked me to leave I was more than happy to grant her that wish because it gave me one less thing to worry about. But she didn't leave without picking numerous fights with Miss Morrell. It was glad to see what I thought was the back of her."

I smiled to myself. Somebody had actually stood up to Monica which was a first. "Claire," Amelie said picking up the file again. "You must leave now. If you wish to know anymore than you must ask one of your friends or Taylor herself. Goodbye."

It wasn't a very polite dismissal but Amelie wasn't very polite. "Thank you Amelie," I said before leaving. On my way out I realised that it was nearly eleven. I took off running back towards the glass house because I knew that Eve would be extremely pissed that I was late for our shopping trip.

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry this chapter was a little shorter but I didn't want to give too much away.<br>Hope this gives you a little more insight though.  
>Enjoy.<strong>


	4. Discussions

**Chapter ****4**

The next few days passed painfully slow. Eve never stopped talking about the party that was approaching and I never stopped thinking about Shane and Taylor. After what Amelie had said about when Shane left she had no one I was bursting with curiosity. I'd yet to pluck up the courage to ask him what had gone on between the two of them.

"I seriously can't wait," Eve squealed. We all groaned.

"We know Eve," Shane said. "You've told us a thousand times already."

"You'll change your tune when you see how hot I'm going to make your girlfriend look on Friday Collins," Eve retorted. I groaned again but this time internally. When Eve took me shopping the other day, she forced me to buy an extremely short deep blue dress. Not something I'd usually wear and certainly not something I was going to feel comfortable in. But I must admit it did look cute.

"Taylor have you got an outfit yet?" Eve asked her.

"Hmm…" she said looking up from a notebook she was reading.

"I said have you got an outfit for your party tomorrow?"

"Oh, yeah of course I have."

"Excellent," Eve said clapping her hands together. "Can I see?"

"No it's still at the shop. I wanted some adjustments made."

"Oh that's a shame." Eve sounded really disappointed.

"So Claire," Michael said changing the subject. "How was work?"

"It was surprisingly dull. Myrnin wanted me to explain to him how his new phone works. Again."

"New phone?"

"Yeah," I laughed. "He decided he wanted an iPhone. It was a bad choice."

"Shane," Taylor said looking up from her notebook again. "Do you think you could help me with something tomorrow? It won't take long."

"Yeah sure," Shane said. "Oh wait. Claire and I are supposed to be doing something tomorrow. You don't mind if we go out in the afternoon instead of the morning do you babe?"

"Fine. Whatever," I sighed angrily and headed for the stairs. There was no real reason for me to be angry because I didn't mind at all. I knew that Shane had got up and was following me but I refused to look back. Instead I went straight into my room and stood in the middle.

"Why are you so mad?" Shane asked slamming my bedroom door behind him. I turned to face him and I instantly felt bad for being jealous. What Shane had done before he met me was none of my concern but I loved him so much that it hurt to think of him being with somebody else.

"I'm not."

"Claire, we both know that's bullshit. What's going on?" He looked genuinely concerned. Sighing, I went and sat on the edge of my bed and he followed suit.

"I'm sorry."

"It's about Taylor isn't it?"

"How did you…" I attempted to ask.

"We've been dating for a year and half. I've learnt to pick up on things."

I smiled slightly. When I first met Shane I didn't think he was the type of guy that cared about other people's feelings. Despite this, he'd proved me wrong on many occasions. He was a classic example of not judging a book by its cover.

Internally cursing I quickly said, "Did you sleep with her?"

Surprisingly he didn't look shocked by my question. Great, that meant that he had and he'd been expecting it. Not that it should matter. I knew that Shane had been quite the player before I met him yet it still hurt. It was probably because I'd now met this girl. I could see for myself how pretty and perfect she was and nothing Shane could say to me would be able change my opinion of her.

After an agonisingly long pause he said, "No." Taken aback I looked up at him. There was no doubt that he was telling the truth. Although Shane was a good liar to most people, I always knew when he was telling the truth.

"Really?"

"Yeah. You know I'd never lie to you." He looked kind of relieved. "I can't believe that that was what was bothering you. I just thought that you didn't like her. I never thought about that. I just assumed you knew we were really good friends."

"I'm sorry. I know it was none of my business but I just-"

He put a finger on my lips to stop me from talking. "I'm glad you care but Taylor and I never have thought about each other that way. She's like my sister. I've known her practically all my life." Then he kissed me. It wasn't an extremely passionate kiss. I knew he didn't intend it to be. He wanted to reassure me that he loved me and he certainly did just that. When he pulled away I pouted a little which made him laugh.

"Come on," he said taking my hand, pulling us both up and wrapping his arms around me. "We should go back downstairs."

"Yeah. I owe Taylor an apology. I've been a total bitch to her since she got here and I should probably try and make it up to her."

"I wouldn't be too worried about that. It won't take much. She doesn't really hold grudges. Ask Michael."

"What do you mean?"

He had that look on his face that he gets when he thought he'd overstepped his mark. "Uh, well I might as well tell you. They dated."

"They dated!" I exclaimed loudly.

"Shh." He placed his hand over my mouth and didn't remove it until I calmed down. "Well dated is an understatement. They were in love."

"Really?" I found that hard to believe but only because of the way Michael looked at Eve. The way he followed her with his eyes when she left the room just made it difficult to think he'd once loved somebody else. Then again, I hadn't known Michael before he was in love with Eve. "What happened?"

"They were a great couple. Dated for three years and hardly ever argued. Until Michael ended it. He completely broke her heart."

"Woah. I didn't think Michael was capable of doing that."

"Michael hasn't always been like he is now."

"But still," I said. Mere minutes ago I had so much hate directed towards Taylor but now I just felt sorry for her.

"She acted like she was fine with it when she was around him because they were friends and she didn't want to make things awkward but I knew she was cut up on the inside. I was the one who had to pick up the pieces."

"You?" I asked extremely surprised.

"Hey," he replied. "I have a sensitive side too." When I continued to stare he added, "And I got Eve to deal with her when she was crying."

"Ah the truth emerges," I said trying to lighten the mood.

"So it does. Just don't tell her I told you. She will end my life without a second thought."

Confused but intrigued I said, "I thought you said she doesn't hold grudges."

"She doesn't. But she also doesn't like her weaknesses being on show. Michael was always her biggest weakness and everyone around here knows about it."

"When did this happen?" I asked. I was discovering so much about my friend's past that I couldn't help but be nosy.

"Not long after-" he stopped and I looked up at him confused.

"Not long after what?"

"Michael broke up with her a couple of weeks after the fire at my house. It wasn't her fault but Taylor stupidly blamed herself. She was supposed to be at my house that night but Michael wanted to take her on a date. I'm glad she bailed. I could have lost both of them."

"So why did she blame herself?"

"Because she was really close to Alyssa. Taylor didn't have any brothers or sisters so she was there for everything girly when Lyss was growing up. She lost a sister that day too and she went completely off the rails. Michael didn't know what to do so he thought that breaking up with her would snap her out of it but that didn't work. Things just got worse."

"That's really sad," I murmured.

"Don't feel bad for her. It made her into the person she is today and she's happy now. She gets to protect the people she cares about and I honestly don't think she'd change that for the world."

Wow, I forgot that Shane could be deep sometimes. However, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of telling him that. Instead I hid a smile and headed down the stairs. In no rush, he followed me.

When I came down the stairs, Eve and Taylor were sat together and Michael was nowhere to be seen. Quietly, I slipped past them into the kitchen. Michael was there leant against the counter with his bent down. There was no need to ask him what was wrong because I already knew. He had heard mine and Shane's conversation. If vampires could cry, I think he probably would have been.

Walking past him, I reached into the fridge and sat down with a bottle of water. "Aren't you going to say anything?" he asked me after a few minutes.

"About what?"

"I heard you and Shane talking."

"Yeah, I gathered that much by the look on your face," I said unscrewing the cap.

"And you're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad?"

"I don't know," he said sitting down. "Because you're a girl. Don't you have to become all righteous and tell me how much of a jerk I was?"

"I'm not going to judge you Michael. I don't have all the facts and I'm sure you had reasons for doing what you did."

"Really?"

"Really."

The kitchen door swung open and Taylor walked in. The atmosphere must have seemed tense because she laughed "Who died?" before turning back to us with a serious expression. "Nobody died right?

"No," Michael laughed hiding all evidence of the seriousness he'd been showing moments ago. "Not today."

"Good." She took out two cokes from the fridge and went to leave but her phone beeped. Placing the cokes on the table she took it out of her pocket. Her face instantly lit up. I knew that look. It was the look I got every time that Shane texted me and told me he loved me. Michael must have realised that too.

"Who's that?" Michael grinned, rushing at her with vampire speed and plucking her phone out of her hand. He held her back with one arm and read her text.

"Give me my phone Michael before I floor you," she said battling against his hold.

"What's going on?" Shane asked. Glancing at the situation he quickly gathered what was going on. Michael tossed the phone to him and held Taylor back, wrapping both his arms around her playfully. "Ah. It's Luke. He says he loves you and he misses you. How sweet."

"Shut it Collins," she said through bared teeth. Although she looked angry, I knew that she was just playing along with them.

"Lets text back shall we," Shane said. Before he could even begin she was out of Michael's hold and had Shane the phone from Shane.

"Woah," I said. "You're gonna have to teach me how to do that."

"All in good time grasshopper. Michael, can we talk?"

"Yeah sure," he said. When he made no move she pointed over her shoulder as a suggestion to go somewhere else. "Oh of course."

**Michael P.O.V**

"Listen Michael," she said pacing. We were in the secret room and she'd made me sit down on the sofa. She was twirling a strand of her hair and biting down on her bottom lip. I remembered how she always used to do that when she was nervous. One of her many quirky little traits that made me fall in love with her to begin with.

"What is it?" I said when she didn't continue any further. She stopped dead, staring at me for a few seconds and then continuing with her pace. Sighing I stood up and pulled her to a stop. Looking deep into her eyes I said, "Tell me. What's wrong?"

"Sit down," she said again. Reluctantly I did. "I lied." Before I could ask what she had lied about, she continued, "I didn't just come to Morganville to see how you're all doing. There are things happening. Things that I can't trust anyone with. Except you."

"You've lost me," I said honestly.

"We've known each other a long time." She sat down next to me. "I know that I can trust you. See, the thing is, Morganville's been… compromised." My eyes widened. "No, no, no. Don't freak out on me. I've got a plan."

"Oh God," I said. Taylor's plans never went along without a hitch.

"Yeah, I know. In the past, my plans have had a few tiny hiccups but I have one thing on my side that I didn't have last time."

"Oh yeah. And what's that?"

"A psychic." I stared at her. This was it. This was the day that Taylor would completely lose it. I knew it was coming. Everyone knew it. She was always a crazy girl but that was just a part of her charm. The look in my eyes must have alerted her to my concern. "I know. Far fetched right? But vampire's exist, so why can't psychics?"

"I'm speechless. You always said that psychics were a load of crap."

"I know. But that was before I met one and they predicted everything."

"And were exactly did you meet this 'psychic'" I said making quotations marks in the air.

She ignored that and continued. "I met her in London. Somebody gave me an anonymous tip that there was a rogue vampire there so obviously I followed up on it. I just about managed to track it to an alley where he was stalking someone. He was just about to attack but I staked him first."

"What does that have-"

"Let me finish my story," she snapped. I smiled. That was the Taylor I always knew. "Anyway, the guy that I saved from the vampire was Luke."

"You met your husband by saving him from a vampire attack!" I said shocked. What a way to make an impression.

"Yes I did. And a couple of months ago I wondered who I had to thank for that."

"What do you mean?"

"Well without the tip I got I never would have met Luke and I wanted to thank whoever it was. To cut a long story short, I traced the call back to a woman in Washington. She said she'd been expecting me for a while and we talked. She knew things about me that nobody could know. Not even you."

"So what's the problem?" I asked. From what she was telling me so far it didn't seem like something to worry about.

"She told me that the FBI had been doing research into Morganville." Ah, there it was. The problem. "Any who, I went back home and decided to do some research of my own. Luke is extremely smart so I got him to hack the FBI."

"Hack the FBI?" That was the kind of thing that only happened in movies wasn't it?

"Yeah. We, well rather Luke, downloaded the top secret file they had on Morganville. Turns out, they're doing research and experimenting on a vampire."

Shit. "What are we going to do?"

"We are not going to do anything, I am. I just needed somebody to know. In case anything happens to me. But you can't tell Amelie."

"I can't lie to her," I said.

"You have to Michael. If Amelie thinks that Morganville is no longer a safe place to be she'll cut her loses and leave, or worse. Amelie will always look after herself first and I wouldn't put it past her to slaughter the whole town and leave without any evidence of their existence. It's the only way."

Damn. I knew she was right. She was always right. Although Amelie came across kind sometimes, I knew preserving our species would be her primary focus. "Fine. What about the others? Can we tell them?"

"Best not. The more they know, the more they're at risk."

Yet again she was right. "Yeah I guess you're right," I expressed aloud. "But we'll do this together Taylor. Whatever it takes." That was for sure. There was no way that I'd let her down. Not again.

* * *

><p><strong>Suprised?<strong>

**Please review!**

**Paige x**


	5. Long Lost Enemies

**Chapter 5**

Michael came downstairs without Taylor an hour after they went up. Whatever it was Taylor wanted to talk to him about, it was troubling him. "Where's Eve?" he asked me and I gestured to the kitchen. He went to her without another word.

"What do you think they were talking about?" Shane asked me. He was whispering. Obviously trying to make sure Michael wouldn't hear.

"I don't know but it must have been something serious. Michael looked like he'd seen a ghost."

"Maybe. Or he could have just looked in the mirror and mistaken himself for a ghost." I smacked Shane on the arm. "Ow," he said sarcastically.

"I wonder where Taylor is."

"She's probably gone to bed."

"Yeah maybe. I'm going to go see if she's alright."

"Okay but hurry up. I want to watch Inception." I ignored him and jogged up the stairs towards Taylor's temporary room.

"I know. I miss you too." I heard her say. There was a short pause. "You know I can't do that. As much as I want to come home, I can't. I would if I could." There was another pause. "Of course I'm safe. I'm staying at the Glass house."

I realised now that what I was doing was wrong. I really shouldn't be listening into her conversation. I started to walk away but a floor board creaked giving me away. Before I knew it she was at the door swinging it open. She didn't look mad which was a good sign. "Hey Claire," she said to me and turned her concentration momentarily back to the phone that was still pressed to her ear. "Luke I've got to go. I'll call you tomorrow. I love you."

She smiled and hung up the phone. "Sorry," I said.

"No problem. Is there something you need?"

"Umm… I was wondering if we could talk."

"Yeah of course." She opened the door wider. "Come in."

"Thanks." She shut the door behind me and gestured for me to sit next to her on the bed.

"So what's up?"

"I… I wanted to apologise to you."

"Claire you don't have to-"

"Please," I cut her off. "Here me out." I took her silence as a sign she was going to accept my terms. "I'm sorry for acting like a total cow since you got here. I had no right to behave like that. You've done nothing to me and I really am sorry."

"Claire," she said, her voice swimming with kindness. "Honestly, there's nothing for you to apologise for. I can be a bit full on at times and I don't tend to think about the affects it has on the people who don't actually know my personality. If anything, it's my fault."

"No it's not your fault. I didn't give you a chance. I should of-"

"Claire," she said cutting me off this time. "If it makes you feel better, I accept your apology. But you never offended me in the first place so don't worry about it."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Of course I am." Leaning over, she unexpectedly hugged me. After a second I hugged her back. If I was going to be friends with her, I'd have to get used to the fact that she was a hugger. "Now do you mind if I ask you a favour?"

"Sure," I said as she pulled away.

"Can I come to the university with you tomorrow?"

"I guess. Do you mind if I ask why?"

She shrugged. "Just thought that I'd have a look around the library. I always get lost around campus when I'm on my own."

"Okay. My first class is at seven thirty."

"Ouch," she said clearly not liking the idea of an early morning. "Maybe I'll meet you lunch and you can show me around."

"Sure. Are you gonna come watch a film with us?"

"Umm no thanks. I have some work to do."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

"Night Claire," I heard her say as I shut the door. I made my way downstairs. When I got to the living room, Michael and Eve had joined Shane in the living room. There were snacks and bowls of popcorn on the table and Shane was practically bouncing in his seat. He'd been waiting to see this film for ages. I sat down and snuggled next to Shane as he pressed play. The rest of the night passed in a blur.

The next morning I got up at six. I couldn't remember coming up to bed but I was in Shane's room so he must have carried me. I was in no particular rush to get ready this morning. I thought about checking in on Taylor to see if she was awake but I highly doubted it so I decided not to.

I had a bad feeling when I left the Glass house that I was being watched. But I put it up to past experiences and the fact I was probably just being paranoid because nothing had happened recently. Not many people were out this morning but that was nothing new for my walk to school. It was early and most people liked to start their day when the sun had been up for a couple of hours.

After a while the feeling began to fade and I walked more confidently towards the campus. My confidence was short lived however because before I knew it I was being dragged and shoved up against a wall in an alley. I struggled at first but when I saw who had me pinned I stopped knowing it was useless. Monica. She obviously wanted something because lately she'd kept her distance and left me alone.

"Well little Claire, you should be more careful shouldn't you? I could have been anyone."

"I'd rather it be anyone than you," I said stupidly. That earned me an even tighter grip which was probably going to bruise.

"Now, now. Play nice geek."

"What do you want?" I asked already bored of her little charade.

"What makes you think I want anything?" she asked trying to look innocent.

I looked at her blankly. "You have me shoved up against a wall and you always want something."

"True," she said with an evil smile. "I want to know why that little bitch Taylor's back in town and you're going to tell me."

Before I could even open my mouth a voice said from behind. "Ah, I love you too Monica. But why don't you ask me yourself?" Within a second Monica was being dragged off of me and Taylor had her on the floor. Although Monica was kicking and screaming it was clear Taylor, despite her small frame, had her in control. After a few moments of Monica still screaming at the top of her lungs it was clear Taylor had had enough. With a quick motion Taylor slapped Monica around the face.

The screaming stopped immediately but Monica looked as if she was going to murder someone. "You fucking bitch let me go," she shouted.

"See I would but I see you have a problem with Claire here which annoys me a little. And besides, I thought you had a question for me."

"Why are you here?" she asked straight away as she was reminded. It was clear by her voice that Monica hated Taylor and by the look in Taylor's eyes, the hate was returned with a passion.

"Don't worry. I'm not here for you. Not this time. However you have no idea how many nights I've spent thinking about it. Coming back to town and reminding everyone what a murderous little cow you are. And then finally seeing you and inflicting the same amount of pain on you as you brought to me, Shane and his parents to name a few."

It was clear that I had been completely forgotten. This was now between two people who had had a problem with each other for a long time. I looked at Monica. She looked scared. In fact, not scared, terrified. Though Taylor often looked sweet enough it was clear she had a dark side and Monica was the driving force behind it. "Let alone all the other people you've hurt. I should have ended you when I had the opportunity. I would have saved a lot of people a lot of pain."

Monica lost the scared look and replaced it with a smug grin. "You should have. Shame that Michael was there though wasn't it." From what Shane had said, this wasn't going to end well for Monica if she kept on bringing Michael into it. "Didn't he break up with you after that?"

Whatever reaction Monica expected, she didn't get it and I could tell that by the way her face dropped in response to the next thing Taylor said. "Yeah he did," she simply stated. "But he still wouldn't sleep with your skanky ass would he?

"Now Monica," Taylor said calmly. "We're going to leave now and your going to walk in the other direction. And if I find out that you ever touch Claire again, no matter where I am I will hunt you down. And this time you won't be walking away from it. You got that?" Monica nodded stiffly without saying a word. Taylor then got to her feet in one swift movement and was pulling me out of the alley into the sunlight.

"Are you okay?" she asked me after putting a few metres between us and the alley. The violent edge to her had faded and she was back to being the sweet little girl that I had met on her first day in town.

"Yeah I'm fine."

"Good. I'm sorry I should have come with you."

"It's not your fault. It happens all the time."

"Well it shouldn't. Monica can't keep getting away with things like this." I looked back and just as Taylor had told her to, she was walking the other way.

"How did you get her to do that?" I asked gesturing to Monica.

"She knows not to test me. I can be scary sometimes."

"Scary? That's an understatement. Monica looked like she was about to cry. I've never seen her so vulnerable. It was awesome." She laughed loudly at my comment but didn't mention anything else about it. "I thought you weren't going to come till later."

"I wasn't. But I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep. Thought I might as well catch up with you. Good job I did too."

"Yeah it was. Thanks," I said.

"Don't mention it. I should be thanking you for giving me an opportunity to slap that bitch."

It was my turn to laugh now but only for a second. I remembered something that she had said to Monica. "What were you talking about when you said you should have ended her when you had the chance?"

She stiffened, smile fading. Then she gave me a look which made my insides turn cold. "When Alyssa died, I lost it but I had to stay strong for Shane. He was my best friend, he needed me. But when he left Morganville and my parents died, it pushed me over the edge. One night I was so drunk that I waited for Monica outside a club she used to go to and I took her to an abandoned warehouse. I tied her up and poured gasoline all over her.

"Luckily, Michael found us and stopped me before I could do something really stupid. I'm not proud of it but you have to understand it was a long time ago and I was different back then. I was out of control and that's when Michael had had enough as well. I lost my parents, my little sister, my best friend and my boyfriend within a number of weeks."

I'd heard it before from various sources but it was different coming from Taylor herself. It was the first time I'd heard her talk about herself in great detail. No wonder she had to leave. There must be only so much one person can cope with and still be a fully functional human being. But somehow she'd pulled through all the hurt and was still here.

"I can't imagine what you must have felt like."

"You don't want to," she said looking down at the floor before changing the subject. "So, where's the library on campus?"

"Not far."

The rest of the walk was quiet. Taylor seemed to be deep in thought again. She often was I noticed. Something important must be on her mind. I took her to the library and dropped her off. She didn't tell me what she was looking for and I didn't ask. If she wanted to tell me she would.


	6. Unannounced

Chapter 6

When I stopped at the library on my way home to see how Taylor was getting on, she wasn't there. I did however find a note left on the desk where she set up camp. It read:

'**Hey Claire. Sorry, had to take off. Lots to do. I'll meet you guys at the party tonight. Don't worry about me. Take care**

**Tay xxx'**

I sighed. That girl was so unpredictable. I put the note in my pocket and headed home. It was still daylight outside and the weather was lovely today. I took my time, taking in the glorious beams of light.

As I reached the gate I heard a scream from inside the Glass House. Eve. I raced up the path and jammed my key into the lock when I reached the top of the steps. Forcing it open, I stumbled inside. I couldn't get very far because Eve was in the hallway bouncing up and down. I came to a sudden stop. I'd misinterpreted the scream. She was happy not in trouble.

"For God's sake Eve," I said annoyed. "I thought something was wrong."

"Sorry," she replied although she didn't look very apologetic. "But look at these."

She thrust a box into my arms. I looked down. Shoes. A high heeled black pair. Of course Eve was excited. "Um…" I said unsure of what to say. They were lovely but whatever I said would not be a good enough reaction for Eve. "They're nice."

"Nice? All you can say is nice. Do you know what these are?" She didn't give me time to answer. "These are part of a limited collection. Only 20 pairs were made. I told Taylor how gorgeous I thought they were and she said she'd work on getting me a pair. Obviously I didn't believe her because they are so hard to find not to mention expensive but she came through."

"Oh."

"You really need to learn to appreciate how amazing Taylor's fashion sense is. It'll do you wonders. Now come with me." She scampered off up the stairs and I regrettably followed. I walked past Shane who had somehow managed to sleep through Eve's screaming. He was passed out on the sofa.

Getting ready took a long time. Not through choice because I certainly didn't have one of those. Eve chattered non stop about how excited she was. I just had to nod and laugh in the right places.

Four hours after I had got home, we were ready. Eve had gone off at some point to make sure that Michael and Shane were ready too. When they were to her satisfaction she came back and grinned at me. "We have to go or else we're going to be late."

"Yeah." I got awkwardly to my feet and looked at myself in the full length mirror Eve had in her room. It didn't even look like me in the reflection. I looked so much more grown up. Eve had done a wonderful job with our hair and makeup. Eve's dress was black (obviously). It had a platted halter neck strap and it stopped just enough above her feet to show off the shoes she was so proud of.

As we made our way down the stairs I realised that although my shoes looked good, they were really going to hurt my feet by the end of the night. However that thought disappeared when I saw Shane's face as he laid eyes on me. I was more thankful to Eve than I had ever been before. Not only had she made me look fantastic, she'd done the same with Shane and Michael as well.

The boys each took turns in complimenting our outfits. Shane whispered something in my ear that I would have been so embarrassment if the others heard. For that reason, I tried to pretend that Michael wasn't a vampire for the moment because I knew he probably did hear.

Michael drove us to Fouder's Square where the party for Taylor was being held. People were being ushered inside. Humans and vampires alike. I could count a total of ten vampires dotted around the perimeter. Amelie must have ordered it to be a high security event. Perhaps she was expecting trouble. People were being turned away at the door and they looked extremely pissed off. I thought for a moment that they wouldn't allow us inside but Eve had our invitation ready in her hand and the vampire I knew as Chris glanced at it and let us through without a problem.

We were one of the last groups of people to arrive. There was a seating plan and we were shown to our table straight away. There were two spare seats at our table, one of which was for Taylor, the other unmarked. I vaguely wondered who else was going to be joining us.

Five minutes after we had sat down, Amelie appeared on the stage. Everyone went silent without having to be asked. "Good evening everyone. I trust you're having a good time." Amelie paused and looked around the room. "I'd like to thank you all for attending tonight. However it is not my place. We're here to celebrate the return of one of our trusted alliances of Morganville. If you would all do me the honour of giving a huge round of applause to Miss Taylor Anderson." Just as she asked, a massive roar of applause erupted throughout the room. Looking around I saw that most people were now on their feet to get a better view of the stage.

I looked up and gasped. Taylor was making her way across and she looked absolutely stunning. As amazing a job as Eve had done on me, Taylor put that to shame. She was wearing a beautiful, red dress that delicately swept across the floor as she walked. I never noticed how graceful she looked when she moved. The dress itself was equally as graceful. It was strapless and had a ruffled skirt at the bottom. There was a slit that ran all the way from the floor to midway up her thigh and it clung to her in all the right places.

She kissed Amelie on the cheek as they passed and when she reached the centre with the microphone she held up her hand to quieten the applause. It didn't work straight away but eventually the crowd calmed down and took their seats once more.

"Thank you," she laughed. She looked so confident up there. "Like Amelie I'd like to thank you all for coming tonight, not that you really had much of a choice." Everyone in the room laughed and my eyes darted to Amelie who was also had a smile on her face. "It means a lot that you could all be here."

The room was so silent, intent on listening to her, that when the door opened everyone turned their heads. A man came through the door, leant against the wall next to it and looked up at the stage, seemingly unconcerned with the fact everyone was staring at him. There was he same amount of confidence that radiated from Taylor, coming form him. I looked back and forth from the handsome man to Taylor. She had an even bigger smile on her face than before. It looked like it was taking her a lot of self control not to go over to him.

"Oh God what was I saying?" She asked herself. Snapping her finger she said, "That's right. I was going to tell you all that I'm sorry. I know that recently I haven't been as hands on with everything as I used to be but that's going to change. Hopefully I'm going to stick around for a while and make sure everything continues to run smoothly. Because at the end of the day, I only do what I do to make sure you all continue to stay as safe as possible.

"And I don't just mean the humans." She looked over to the tables that the vampires were sat on. Meeting their eyes directly. "I've always wanted Morganville to be a place where both vampires and humans can coexist and work together rather than against each other. And recently that idea has been turned into reality thanks to a girl who hasn't even been here that long but has definitely made an impact. She's certainly made my life a hell of a lot easier. And that girl is Claire Danvers. So if you could raise your glasses, to Claire."

I looked up nervously and blushed as everyone in the room said "To Claire" in unison. "So I'm not going to bore you for much longer," Taylor said lowering her glass. "But like I said, thank you so much for coming. It's going to be great to talk to you all. Plus, it's a free bar, so get up and get the most out of this night as you possibly can. I know I will be."

With another round of applause she walked down the stairs to the floor, the way she had walked up. Somehow, despite the six inch heels she was wearing, she managed to run into the arms of the man who had been leaning against the wall. He caught her with no difficulty at all, lifted her up off the ground and spun her around as she buried her face in his shoulder. When her feet eventually touched the ground again he kissed her furiously. His arms wrapped around her waist and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I take it that's Luke," Eve said excitedly as all four of us watched what was going on.

"Either that or she's feeling extremely friendly tonight," Shane chimed in.

"Come on." Eve took Michael's hand as she said it and headed in their direction. Shane and I followed suit. "Hi," Eve said. They instantly stopped kissing when they heard Eve. Michael looked over at Taylor apologetically. Although, Luke kept his arms tight around her waist, not letting her move away from him. Not that she looked like she had any intention of doing that anyway.

Now that I was nearer, I noticed that he looked a lot younger. Closer to Shane and Michael's age than I had previously thought. "Hey," Taylor replied to Eve.

"Aren't you going to introduce us?"

"Of course," she smiled. "Guys this is Luke. Luke, this is Eve, Michael, Shane and Claire," she said pointing to each one of us.

"Nice to meet you all," he smiled.

"Likewise," Eve said whilst raising her eyebrows at Taylor with a massive grin on her face. Clearly she was impressed with his accent. I knew Eve had a soft spot for English men as she had previously once told me. "You didn't tell us Luke was coming Taylor."

That distracted her. She was gazing into his and then her forehead suddenly crumpled with what could only be described as agonizing concern. If you'd not seen the glee in her eyes before, you'd never have known it was there. "That's because I didn't know," she said more to Luke than us. "What are you doing here? Is everything okay?"

"Don't worry," he said soothingly whilst brushing the hair from her face. "I'll explain later when it's less…" Instead of verbally finishing his sentence his gaze drifted to the vampires in the room. Whatever the answer to her question, he obviously didn't want anyone to hear. He leant down and gently kissed her forehead. "You look amazing by the way. Not that that's anything new."

"Thank you," she said resting her head against his chest.

"No he's right girl," Eve said trying to break the awkwardness. "You look seriously hot."

She smiled. "Thanks. You guys don't look so bad yourself. I have to go and talk to Amelie. Why don't you take Luke and get some drinks? I'll be back soon."

She flounced off, her curls bouncing as she did. Yet another thing I noticed about her dress was that it was laced up at the back. Eve was definitely right about her fashion sense. It was awesome. Luke's eyes didn't leave her until she was out of sight. Eve dropped Michael's hand and hooked her arm through Luke's. "So Luke," she said guiding him the way that we had come. "Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?"

"What do you want to know?" he replied.

"How did you meet Tay?"

"She saved my life," he answered straight away. Shane, Eve and I shared a look of surprise but Michael seemed unaffected. "I fell in love with her as soon as I laid eyes on her."

"Ahh," Eve and I said simultaneously. Shane rolled his eyes at us. Typical guy.

"So man," Shane said trying to change the subject. "What brings you to this hell hole?"

Luke hesitated then said, "I missed my girl more than I expected I would. When she called yesterday and said she had to stay longer than anticipated I thought I'd surprise her."

"Well I think you certainly did that," Eve laughed.

* * *

><p><strong>I decided to go a little more girly for this. If you want to see the dresses I described for the girls they're on my profile.<strong>

**It would really mean a lot to me if you reviewed this, even if it's short just please write something if you can.**

**Thanks for keeping up with the story.**

**xxx**


	7. Mistakes

**Chapter 7**

Michael excused himself from the table not long after we'd sat down. He said he needed to go to the bathroom but he went in the completely wrong direction. It still surprised me in a weird way that vampire's needed to go.

Eve did not stop asking Luke questions and God bless him he answered every one as best he could. Most of them were complete nonsense like, "Do English people only drink tea?" She actually believed him when he told her 'yes' until he finally had to clarify that he was in fact joking. She claimed she knew that but we all knew she thought he was deadly serious.

Every now and then she'd turn to me and say, "He's so cute right?" loud enough that the people at the next table could hear let alone Luke. On the third time she asked she said, "Ow. What the hell Shane?" I quickly gathered that he'd kicked her under the table. It was probably for many reasons:

1) That was his best friend's girlfriend talking about how hot another man was.

2) She was eventually going to stop looking cute whilst doing it and freak one of his other best friend's husband out.

3) He was a little jealous.

She looked to me for support but I just pretended to be unaware of the situation by looking at my glass. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck in another Eve and Shane drama. They were like siblings. In fact, sometimes I was convinced that they actually were related and one of them was put up for adoption because they argued so much.

**Michael POV**

I had to get out of there. Watching her kiss him with the same spark that used to be between us was driving me insane. Plus hearing Luke talk about how much he loved Taylor made my skin crawl. It made me so angry I was scared I was going to completely lose it. I told the others that I need to use the bathroom (which was untrue of course) and left. Trying to be at least a tiny bit civilised I walked at a normal, human pace. They'd definitely know something was wrong if I didn't.

At first, I didn't know where I was going but then it clicked. I needed to talk to her. To see her at the very least. I told myself it was to make sure she really was happy but I knew my real motives and they disgusted me. I wasn't that guy. The guy who broke up other people's relationships on a whim. But this wasn't a whim. There was reasoning. He wasn't good enough for her. Wasn't right for her. I could tell that the first second I laid eyes on him. I didn't need the clarity of vampire vision to be aware of that.

I didn't take me very long to find my way through the corridors to the quietest part of the building, furthest away from the hall. Here you could barely here the beat of the music. I knew where Taylor would be with Amelie. There was a fully soundproofed room right at the end that even vampires couldn't hear into. It was a convenient way for Amelie to discuss important business without being overheard.

So the first I knew of Taylor coming out was when the door opened twenty minutes later. I'd been leaning against the wall trying to look as casual as possible the whole time for when she did. "Sup Mikey," she said shutting the door behind her.

"Hey kid." I internally smacked myself. Be cool Mikey. Just be cool.

"Just because you're slightly taller than me does not give you the right to call me a kid. You're only a couple of months older than me."

She came closer to me so that she was only a few inches away from me and looked into my eyes. Truthfully, I was more than a little taller than her but I didn't want to point that out and make her argue with me more. I completely forgot what I was going to say. She smiled a knowing smile. The knowledge being she knew she had always had that affect on me.

"So spying on me are we?" she asked distancing herself a little.

"No of course not. I wouldn't-"

"I know. I was joking. Are you okay? You seem a little on edge."

"I'm fine," I said far too quickly to be as cool as I was trying to be.

"Okay then. I'll take your word for it. But if there is something on your mind you know that you can always talk to me about it." I did know that I could talk to her about anything… except this. It was too much to put on her what with all the stress that was she was under already. "Come on. We should get back to the others."

No. By the others she meant Luke and I didn't want her near him. I had a bad feeling about him. He wasn't right for her and she needed to know that. I looked around and spotted a janitor's closet. I took her hand and pulled her inside. When we were inside I then shut the door. She began to say, "Michael, what are you-"

I took her face in my hands and crushed my lips to hers cutting off her words. At first she didn't respond, even started to struggle, but then I felt her hands thread through my hair. I smiled to myself. Now she was working with me rather than against me. It was so natural. I pressed her body closer to mine, as close as I could make her. I needed this. I needed her. It'd had always been her. There'd always been something between us. A connection that I didn't have with anybody else. Not even Eve. Oh Eve.

As if she heard this thought she pulled away. She pulled her hands out of my hair but instead of lowering them, she slapped me. Even though I was a vampire, it still hurt when her hand connected with my face. It was probably more of an emotional thing rather than a physical thing. Though, she was capable of doing some serious damage if it came to it.

"What the hell are you playing at?" I opened my mouth to answer her question but she continued instead. Words just rushing from her mouth. "Seriously. What were you thinking? I mean I'm married and you're dating one of my best friends. My best friend. Oh God. What am I supposed to tell Eve? I don't know how to lie to her. I don't want to lie to her. I need to tell her. We need to-"

I put a hand over her mouth to calm her down. She took a deep breath through her nose and then smacked my hand away. "Don't touch me."

"I'm sorry." Her anger faded and she put her head in her hands. When she lifted her head again she looked much calmer.

"It's okay," she said. Her voice was much calmer now as well. "It was a mistake. I under-"

"It wasn't a mistake," I interrupted with absolute certainty. One thing I was sure of was that being with Taylor was never a mistake. Even when people told me I was crazy for being in love with such an extravagant girl as Taylor, I could honestly look them in the eye and tell them that they were wrong. That they just didn't understand her. But I did. I always had. No matter what she was going through, I always knew what was going on in her head.

Until we broke up that is. She shut me out when that happened and for a long time I found it difficult to truly explain to myself that I did the right thing. But when she came back into my life just a few days ago, she was the same girl I loved back then. Only this time she was a hell of a lot stronger. Not as dependant on anyone for support. She'd argue that that was because she had Luke now. I'd argue that it was just because she was an exceptional, caring human being.

She seemed to be unsure of how to approach the meaning behind what I was saying. Clearly though, her anger was winning. "Not a mistake? Are you broken? You can't just go around kissing people. Especially when you and they are in a relationship. It's wrong. You were always really against people cheating and having affairs."

"I know. I still am but-"

"But nothing. There's no excuse."

"There is. I made a mistake when I broke up with you. I loved you, I still do. The only reason I said it was better for us to break up was to see if you'd get better and you did. The only problem was that you left to do it. You weren't around anymore and I couldn't explain myself. Shane told me that you thought I'd stopped loving you but I never did. Never would. No matter-"

"Stop. You can't do this Michael because you're feeling nostalgic about the good times we had. We're over. Finished. We were then and we still are now."

She reached for the door handle but I grabbed her hand. Closing her eyes she said, "I don't want to hurt you Michael but I will if you do not get off of me." For my sake, I let go. She had such a bad temper and I didn't want that directed at me. Not that she'd really mean it but she'd always had a short fuse. It was one of things that made her pretty dangerous and one of the things that made me extremely attracted to her.

I followed at a slower pace feeling utterly dejected. When I got to the table she was sat down between Luke and Shane. I couldn't handle being around the too of them. It just wasn't fair. Making a decision in that second I went over to Eve and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey," she said. "Where'd you get to?"

Taylor stiffened. She was scared I was going to say something. I wouldn't do that to her though. It wasn't her fault she didn't love me back. "I bumped into Oliver then Amelie. I'm really sorry but she needs me to do something for her. You guys going to be okay for getting home?"

"I'll drive them," Luke said. I just nodded. Unable to make conversation with a guy my girl was in love with.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Eve asked.

"No. Stay, enjoy yourself. I'll be home later tonight." I left before she could say anything else and I'd have to lie to her more. The thing I didn't lie about was that I'd be home later tonight. The only place I could think to go was to a bar. It wasn't my usual thing to do but I needed to forget. And quickly. There weren't many bars in Morganville to choose from so it didn't take that long to decide where to go. Not that it really mattered because location wasn't important right now.

Whilst I was there, numerous pretty college girls tried talking to me but I had no interest in them. None of them held a candle to Taylor. With the more alcohol I consumed the less patience I had to be polite with them. To get them to stop I eventually had to resort to giving them a glare and making red flash in my eyes. They instantly backed off when I did that, practically following over themselves to get away.

In order to get me to leave, a few of the vampires I knew had to force me out on the street in hope that I'd go home. If I hadn't of known the vampires I probably would have started a fight with them but they were my friends and deep down I knew they were just looking out for me. And it was the right idea because I did head home. Nobody bothered me of course because I was a vampire. Nobody bothered vampires at night no matter what state they were in.

When I got back to my house that night I fumbled to get my key into the lock. Five times I tried before I finally gave up and just sunk to the floor. I was leaning against it just staring up at the sky when it opened and I fell backwards. I looked up and saw a very anxious looking Eve. She had no make up on and she was wearing her black pyjamas that had tiny little evil pumpkins on.

They looked funny, I thought to myself which made me laugh. Eve didn't. She just helped me to my feet and supported me as we walked to the sofa where I collapsed. "Michael what were you thinking?" Eve asked. "It's dangerous outside at night."

I laughed at her. "Not for me." I laughed again. "I'm a vampire remember," I whispered.

"Yeah," she said. "An incredibly drunk off his ass vampire."

"I'm not drunk," I said closing my eyes. "Just a bit tired."

"Come on then Mr I'm Not Drunk, let's get you up to bed so that I can shout at you in the morning for worrying me sick all night."

"No."

"Please. I'll even let you sleep in my bed."

I smirked. "Okay Tay, I'll be up in a minute."


	8. Dejected

Chapter Eight

_I smirked. "Okay Tay, I'll be up in a minute." _

As soon as the words left my mouth I realised my mistake. My eyes closed and my face probably turned into a mask of pure horror.

"Taylor," she said softly. I opened my eyes to peek at her. She looked betrayed. In fact no, there wasn't a strong enough adjective to describe how she looked but it was at least along those lines.

"Eve…" I said.

"Oh, so you do actually know my name then," she said. I didn't know what to say. I was drunk which wasn't a good way to conduct this conversation. I'd decided in the bar that I was going to break up with her. I couldn't lead her on like that because I really did care about her. My feelings for her were real just not as strong as they were for the other girl I was in love with. "Have you two been seeing each other behind my back all this time?"

"No of course not. I'd never do that to you Eve and to top it all off Taylor would never do that to you. You're her best friend and she loves you. She'd never do anything to hurt you."

"You're right," she said. She looked at me deeply. With regret I had to look away. "You're breaking up with me, aren't you?"

I couldn't turn back. I just couldn't. I had to talk to her but I couldn't see the pain in her face. Eve had been through a lot and the last thing I wanted to see was her pain at my hands. "Yes. I'm sorry." Even though I knew I was doing the right thing, it was still so hard. "Seeing Taylor with Luke, I realised that I'm still in love with her."

She was uncharacteristically quiet. I turned to look at her and just as I'd expected she was silently crying. I couldn't let that stop me though. I had to go on. "I did something stupid today. I kissed her. I shouldn't have done that. It's not fair on either of you. She stopped me obviously. Even slapped me."

Eve laughed the tiniest bit. It wasn't exactly the reaction I was expecting but I had to take what I could get. "Of course she did."

"Yeah. I'm so sorry Eve."

"Eve?" I heard Taylor's voice call from the hallway followed shortly by the front door slamming shut. Bad timing was her forte.

"In here," Eve said doing her best not to sound upset.

"I've looked everywhere. I found some vamps who said he was at a bar earlier but he took off. Have you heard fro-" She stopped when she saw that Eve was sat with me. She'd changed from her beautiful dress that she was wearing earlier. Probably because it wasn't very practical for going out in Morganville at night. Not that going out at all was very practical for a human. "Oh I see you've found him. Thanks for calling me Evie."

Eve cleared her throat. "Sorry."

"Ah don't worry about." Although she was talking to Eve, who had her back to Taylor, she didn't look away from me. But she directed her next words to me. "You should have called. I don't care whether you're a vampire or not. In Morganville it's not safe to go wandering off on your own at night. Do you know how much I had to argue with Shane to stop him from going to look for you? You had us all worried sick."

"You're right. I'm sorry."

"Yeah well good luck trying to explain that one to Shane and Claire tomorrow because I'm not doing it." I nodded and she breathed out the breath she'd been holding to shout at me. She wasn't really angry about this. Maybe still a little angry from earlier but I could tell she was a lot more relieved than anything else. "Okay. Well I'm going to take off. See you tomorrow Eve." Ouch. Gone straight to ignoring me. Angry Taylor was much better to deal with than when she was giving the cold shoulder. I knew how to diffuse that because I knew her. I knew how to make her laugh in any situation because we shared the same sense of humour.

"What you can't leave. You just got back," Eve said jumping to her feet and turning to face her for the first time. It clicked what she had said. I was too wrapped up in my self to notice that she'd said she was leaving. Being drunk probably didn't help.

"You're not going anywhere," I said standing shakily to my feet.

She ignored me and walked over to Eve putting a hand on the side of her face. "Eve hunny. What's the matter? You've been crying."

"Nothing I'm fine," Eve replied.

"No you're not. What's the matter? You can tell me."

I looked between the two of them. It was excruciating. Two girls that I loved right in front of me. Because I did love Eve. Just as more as a sister. I didn't want to see her hurt but I couldn't think of anyway to prevent that. "I know about you and Michael," Eve blurted out.

Taylor stiffened and lowered her hand from Eve's face. She looked to the floor. Not meeting the eyes of myself nor Eve. "I'm so sorry," she said quietly. It pained me to hear her so upset but I worried that if I tried to console her it would just make things worse. "I-"

"No. It's not your fault. Michael told me everything. He kissed you. Not the other way around." She didn't let Taylor speak when she opened her mouth. "No. Really it's fine. You and Michael were always perfect for each other. I was stupid to think that I could replace you. It's really okay. I'm fine with you two being together."

"Michael and I are not getting together Eve." That stung even more than her ignoring me. "One, I'm married to a man who I love very much and two, I wouldn't do that to you."

"Why not? I did it to you. I knew how much Michael meant to you yet I still dated him."

"It doesn't matter Eve. I couldn't do that to you." Eve started crying again then. Taylor looked clearly confused. She'd been trying her hardest not to upset Eve. I could tell because instead of saying the first thing that came into her head like she usually did, she actually choose her words carefully. "What did I say?" she asked, quick to take the blame.

To her surprise, Eve didn't answer she just wrapped her arms around Taylor. She cried into her shoulder and Taylor gave me a look that clearly said 'leave.' I didn't though. I was too worried about Eve. After a few minutes, her tears slowed. She looked up at Tay and said, "I'm going to bed. You don't mind sharing with me if you stay tonight do you?"

"Of course not," Taylor said. "Get some sleep sweetie."

She watched as Eve went upstairs. It was awkward because she didn't want to look at me and I didn't want to look away. When she sat down heavily on the sofa, I was shocked myself that she burst into tears. I was so used to her being the strong one all the time. It wasn't fair that I expected that of her though.

I sat down next to her and tried putting my arm around her but she was having none of it. She shot to her feet, eyes gleaming with deep emotion. I hadn't seen her that angry in a very long time and if I was being honest, I scared me. "Don't you dare, touch me. What the hell were you thinking? She's in tears because of us. My best friend is probably up there right now crying her eyes out and you have the cheek to try and out your arm around me."

"Calm down," I said. She was getting panicky.

"Calm down?" she said mockingly. "How the fuck am I supposed to 'calm down'?" she shouted. For someone so small she could really shout. I flinched as she said it. It was no use trying to talk to her when she was like this. Despite me not answering her, she continued shouting. "You know what? I was right to leave this hell hole. It's nothing but trouble all of the time."

I heard heavy footsteps trudging down the stairs. When Shane came into view his hair was messy and he was rubbing his eyes. He'd obviously been sleeping and was awoken by Taylor's outburst. "What's going on?" he complained. "Lover's tiff is it?"

Taylor's eyes went wide and she started shouting at me again. "You told him as well? Where was I when you issued a public statement that you practically attacked me in a cupboard."

"He did what," Shane said. He took the words she used the wrong way it really woke him up.

"Not like that," I said quickly. "I'd never hurt her. I kissed her that's all."

"Michael!" she exclaimed.

We both started talking loudly at each other at the same time. I couldn't hear what she was saying and she probably couldn't hear what I was saying either. We both stopped talking to glare at Shane when we heard him yell, "Guys."

"What?" we said at the same time. Her glare went from Shane to me.

"Look quiet down. You'll wake…" he trailed off. There were more footsteps. Fantastic. More witnesses to this. I was glad that it was only Claire and not Eve. She was wearing one of Shane's shirts. You didn't need three guesses to know want they'd been up to. "Claire," he finished.

"What's with the shouting match?" she asked. Shane shook his head at her as a clear sign for her to drop the subject which she did.

"Come on you. Back to bed," Shane said dragging Claire along with him up the stairs. Leaving us alone again.

"So, where does this leave us?" I asked after an uncomfortable silence.

"Us? There is no us. Hasn't been for years. You should know that more than anyone. After all, you dumped me remember?" I did remember. Vividly. The look of complete heart-break on her face and the guilt that eat away at me for months. "Look, Luke's staying at a hotel. I'm going to stay with him. I'll pick up my stuff tomorrow. I think it'll be better for everyone if we keep our distance."

"No," I said. "It certainly won't be better for me and you can't go with Luke."

"Why not?" She scoffed.

"I just don't trust him."

"You don't even know him. You haven't given him a chance and you've barely muttered two words to him. He doesn't deserve this. He's a good guy and I don't need your jealousy trying to turn me against him. I love him Michael. Luke. I love Luke. He's the most important thing to me. Not you."

"No he's not. The most important thing to you has always been your pride. You're just too stubborn to admit that when I kissed you earlier. You felt something that you haven't felt in a long time."

"And how would you know that?"

"Because I felt it too."

For a moment, I thought I'd done. I thought that I'd gotten through to her. I could see that she really had felt the same way as I did. Just as I was about to reach for her, she covered it up and raised her head high. "You're wrong. I didn't feel anything. I'm leaving now."

The worst thing about it was that I couldn't stop her. I was frozen to the spot until it was too late. When I could move again, all I could do was sink to my knees. Hopeless and dejected. And to top it all off, all on my own…

* * *

><p><strong>There you go. The next chapter.<strong>

**Paige x**


	9. Set Up

**Chapter Nine**

**Taylor POV**

It didn't take long to get back to the hotel where Luke was staying. Morganville wasn't a very big town after all. But when I got there, I couldn't get out of my car. My hands felt like they were glued to the wheel my fists were clenched so tight. I had no idea how I really got here. I just kept thinking about Michael's face when I'd left. Told him that there were no us. It reminded me of when he'd broken up with me. I couldn't bear looking in the mirror for days after that because I would always see the pain painted on the face of my reflection.

I leant my head against the steering wheel. I was so angry. Not just with Michael but with myself. I hadn't meant to cause him any pain. I'd been there and I didn't want to anyone to ever have to go through that. My head snapped up as I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end. I looked around. I felt like I was being watched. Perhaps I was just being paranoid.

'Sitting in a car, at night, in Morganville really isn't a good idea,' I thought to myself. With that I removed the keys from the ignition and hopped out the car whilst scouting the area. I couldn't see anyone but if there were vampires around I wasn't expecting to be able to. I hurried inside as fast as I could.

There was no one at reception but that was to be expected. What would they put in the job description? 'Applicants must be prepared to be munched upon by the un-dead that roam the streets at night.' I smiled a little despite myself. It really wasn't something to laugh about but I had a weird sense of humor.

I made my way slowly up the stairs. I could have taken the elevator but I needed to sort out what I had to say my head before I actually went and spoke to Luke. I took the room key out of my back pocket. I'd convinced Luke to give it to me earlier on so that if I came around I wouldn't have to wake him. Attempting to be as quiet as possible I swiped the card and went inside. There was no point in my being quiet though because the lamp on the bedside table was on and Luke was sat on the end of the bed, head in his hands and his elbows leant on his knees.

He must have heard me come in though he didn't look up. "Hey," I said. He left it a few seconds and then turned to me. And that was it. God I really had pissed him off hadn't I. We'd had an argument earlier this evening. Eve had been worried about Michael and of course I was too. He got angrier than I'd ever seen him when I told him that I was going to go out and look for him. It felt wrong upsetting him though I couldn't help but think that Michael was in trouble and I would never have been able to forgive myself if that were true and I just stood by and did nothing.

"I found Michael," I said trying to make conversation. "Well technically he kinda found himself. He was already home when I got back to the Glass house."

"Well that's great," he said bitterly. Great he was in a bad mood. I really didn't need this right now. My night had been rough enough as it was. Whilst I was looking for Michael I had let a group of vampires get the better of me. Just for a second but that was long enough for the ringleader of the group of four to throttle me. The main reason I was wearing a scarf around my neck. It was already starting to bruise and I didn't need anyone freaking out about me right now.

"What's wrong with you?"

"It's just nice to know that you don't mind risking your life for a dead man."

"Hey that's not fair. Yeah Michael's a vampire but I'd do the same for anyone of my friends and you know it."

He sighed and stood up. Then he wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. "I know. Sorry. I just worry about you."

"Yeah," I said hugging him back. "But I can look after myself a hell of a lot better than most."

"I'm not so sure about that. Look at the situation your in now." I looked up him confused. Before I could ask what he meant I felt a sharp searing pain in my back. I screamed in pain, stumbled away from him and fell to the floor. He was holding a needle. "Sorry Tay. I've got my orders."

"I don't understand. What's going on?" I tried to concentrate but everything seemed to be blurring into one.

"Of course you don't. You'll find out soon enough though." He came towards me. I tried to crawl away but my limbs wouldn't function properly.

'Shit,' I thought. 'He'd drugged me.'

**Claire POV**

Shane hadn't bothered to explain to me what was going on. He just said that it was between them and we shouldn't get involved. That didn't stop my worrying. They were both clearly upset about something. Michael was practically family to me and Taylor was at least beginning to be a friend. I'd let it go though.

There hadn't been anymore shouting since we'd come back upstairs so I decided to let it go. At least for now anyway. I'd approach the subject again in the morning. Vaguely I wondered why Eve hadn't bothered to come downstairs. Perhaps it hadn't woken her up. She was a heavy sleeper after all.

I did manage to fall back to sleep but it was short lived. I heard a crash coming from downstairs that made me sit bolt upright in bed. It had the same affect on Shane except instead of freezing like me he jumped to his feet and quickly went over to his drawer. He pulled out two stakes. Just as he was about to throw one to me though his bedroom door swung open.

We couldn't see anything. Not just because it was pitch black due to it being the middle of the night but there was smoke and lots of it. I threw myself out of bed searching for some kind of weapon but before I could I was forcefully grabbed by my shoulders. I could hear Shane calling my name but I couldn't respond. I was feeling sleepy. I heard Eve shriek and I wanted to go to her. I wanted to know my best friend was okay but there was nothing I could do. And then slowly, everything began to fade…

**Taylor POV**

Waking up from a drug induced slumber was almost as bad as falling into one. I felt like I was being rocked backwards and forwards. It wasn't until I was conscious for a little longer that I realized that I actually was. Opening one eye a tiny bit, I peaked into my surroundings. I was in the air which confused me. Then I realized yet another thing, I was being carried.

I closed my eyes and concentrated as hard as possible as appearing unconscious, biding my time. It wasn't until I felt myself being put down that I reacted. My eyes opened and I shot to my feet. I was a little slower than usual but surprise was on my side. The man who had been carrying me tried to grab me but I ducked out the way. Quickly, I managed to get a blow to both his face and the back of his legs, making his knees buckle.

Unfortunately it also made me severely out of breathe. I put my hands on me knees and bent over trying to get my head together. I felt really dizzy. Sensing that there would probably be more people coming soon, I made my way to the door. Before I could get there it opened and two more people came in. I groaned internally. I wasn't in any state to fight.

But I had to try. They saw me straight away and rushed for me. I decided to take the one on the left first. He looked stronger than the other and I thought it'd be better to get him out of the way. I allowed him to grab me, only to elbow him in the ribs, hit the front of his head with the back of mine and throw him to the ground. Before I could even start to go for the other one something hit me around the back of the head. I crumpled to the floor in a massive heap.

They dragged me back to the chair and tied my hands behind my back with some extremely thick rope. I struggled but it was no use. I had no chance. The one who I'd taken on had blood pouring from his nose. "You little bitch," he said and started to come towards me. The other two men pulled him back.

"Leave it," one of them said. "They need her."

With a fierce look at me they all left the room. I wasn't on my own for long because yet another man, this one wielding a very sharp looking knife, entered. "Hello Taylor. It's been a long awaited meeting." I didn't respond. "Ah come on. What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

"Screw you," I said. Before I could say anything else the door swung open and ten people entered. What was with everyone going back and forth through that door. I wouldn't have been scared if it were just ten more men who had been sent in to intimidate me but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Six of them walked in of their own free will and the other four were being dragged. The four that scared me. Not because they could hurt me but because they could be hurt.

I looked straight up at the man who had the knife. "Let them go. Now." I tried to be as menacing as possible. It failed.

"Or what girlie? You'll pout at me." He was really starting to piss me off now. It got the better of me. I tried to go for him but the rope attaching me to the chair and the chains attaching the chair to the floor prevented me from moving very far. "Now now. Play nice."

"Look," I said trying to be reasonable. "It's me you want right? So why can't you just let them go?"

"Because Tay," a voice that triggered a painful response in me said entering the room. "You have never been the most cooperative person to work with."

"Luke," I said simply.

He stopped when he was a foot or so in front of me. "Ah don't be like that sweetie. I thought you loved me."

"I could never love you as much as you love yourself," I said smiling grimly as a few of the guards sniggered.

"Ouch," he said laughing. "Not one of your best comebacks but it's to be expected since you're a little overwhelmed at the moment."

"Overwhelmed? I'm not overwhelmed I'm fucking confused. What the hell is going on?"

"Oh. You haven't told her Paul," he said putting a name to the man I had been with me. He shook his head. "Well, you're going to be sad to know that I've been lying to you hunny. I'm not some little lost puppy that you found and saved in London. I'm not English. In fact, I'm from the good US of A." When he said that, he lost his accent and it was replaced by one that was American. Somewhere near Washington I'd expect.

"You've been played," he said smiling.

"What?" I asked. I was beginning to become overwhelmed now.

"So slow Taylor. I'd expect better of you. I'll spell it out. It's all been a lie, since the moment you met me. I was never in any danger of being attacked by a vampire. It was set up to make you fall for me."

"But what about the tip off I got?"

"Set up," he clarified. "Honestly I couldn't believe it when you fell for that one. A psychic. Really?" I'd never felt like this towards him but I couldn't help but want to wipe that smug smile off of his face. "The wedding. Every time I told you that I loved you. It was all just part of the lie. And you fell for it like the stupid little girl you are."

"Son of a bitch," I heard Shane say from across the room. It was followed by a soft thud that made me cringe and Claire's shrieking. They'd hit him. I couldn't bare look over there. It was all my fault. The whole reason they were here was because of me. I had to get them out.

"Claire be quiet," I commanded. Unexpectedly she did.

"So, I've been honest with you, is there anything you want to tell me?" he asked leaning closer.

I blinked back the tears that had formed in my eyes. "Yeah," I said. "You were never that good in bed." He glared at me and then moved out the way. As soon as he did I was slapped round the face. Well slapped was an understatement. I was punched in the face. I heard all four of my friends start shouting. It was more painful to know that they were going to get hurt because of me than anything these men could do.

I spat to my side removing most of the blood that was in my mouth. "That the best you got? I know children who could hit harder," I said to Paul.

"No it's not the best I've got. But I need you alive so I guess you'll just have to wait to find out." He nodded towards the guards that were stood around my friends. Two of them reacted by grabbing the blonde angel and dragging him over towards me. They threw him in a heap on the floor about five feet in front of me.

He hissed and it took me a second to realize why, my eyes becoming wide. There were silver chains binding his hands and legs together. It burnt his skin where it touched. Michael tried to smile at me. I think he was trying his best to appear strong and not worry me but it didn't work in the slightest.

"Now baby," Luke said. "I don't want these people to hurt you. I really have grown quite fond of you. But, if you do not cooperate with us. We'll have no choice but to make you."

"And how exactly do you propose to do that," I asked intrigued.

He went to Michael and pressed something against his face. Michael screamed and I cringed. The thing in Luke's hand was a silver change. I was horrified as I watched the silver react with his skin. The worst thing about it was that I'd given Luke that chain to protect him. Ironic. "Either you do what we want," he started. "Or we torture this one until we finally drive a stake through his heart. If you comply however, we'll let them all go. Unharmed."

"Don't do it Tay," Michael said. "They'll hurt you."

They took what looked like a mini version of a stake and shoved it in his arm. "Well it doesn't look like I really have a choice so that's a chance I'll have to take," I said to him. Then I turned to Luke. "I'll do it."

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><p><strong>So there's chapter nine.<strong>

**More soon.**

**Paige xx**


	10. What to do?

**Chapter ****Ten**

**No One's POV**

"Ah shame," Paul said. "I could have really done with having a bit of fun with you first." He yanked her hair to the side, revealing her neck. Then he touched her skin so softly he was almost caressing her. Taylor didn't make a sound which was unusual for her. Usually she always had something to say. She looked somewhat detached from the situation.

"What are we going to do?" Claire whispered to Shane moving a tiny bit closer. She was really starting to worry about him. He'd been hit pretty hard around his head and the wound was still bleeding quite badly.

"Nothing," Shane whispered back just as quietly. "There's nothing we can do. We're helpless. If we make a move they're going to stop us and take it out on Taylor or Mike. Or both. Taylor will get us out of here. I know she will. We just have to wait." That was new. Shane actually being the patient one. He'd usually take any excuse to get in a fight. No matter what the odds.

Claire looked over to Eve who was sat on her left. She'd been crying on the way over but she'd stopped now. Claire thought that Eve would have been reacted a lot more to the fact that Michael was being tortured but she didn't. She looked worried obviously but there was a different kind of vibe going on between them. Perhaps it was just stress. Eve looked up from the floor when she felt Claire staring at her and took her hand.

"What do you need me to do?" Taylor asked Luke. She seemed to be trying to ignore Paul. Nobody could blame her. He was starting to get really creepy.

"We need you to break into Amelie's office. We'd do it ourselves of course but we don't actually know where it is," Luke answered. "I'm guessing you do."

"What for?" she asked.

"None of your concern," Paul sneered picking up a strand of her hair. "You just be a good little girl and-"

"No. She has to know what she's looking for," Luke said. "And by the way, leave her alone. She isn't here for your amusement." He dropped her hair and backed away, clearly not impressed about being ordered around by a teenager. Taylor looked at Luke almost thankfully but it went away extremely quickly. Not before he saw it though. He smiled at her but said nothing of it. "We need information."

"About what?"

"That's where it gets complicated. We don't know. Some kind of document perhaps. We want to know everything that Amelie knows. Which includes the things she keeps to herself. Whatever the Founder is hiding we need to know about it. There's bound to be something she's kept from every other person in this town."

"If she's hiding something do you really think she'd be stupid enough to leave it in her office? What's it going to be under? A folder on her desktop called 'secrets'? Come on, what are you really after?"

"If you must know we're looking-" he started to say.

"Luke," Paul said warningly.

"What's she going to do? She's tied to a chair," he said mockingly. The men in the room shook their heads slightly. Particularly the ones who had brought her in. They'd seen what she was capable of whilst she was still drugged. Who knew what she could do now they'd all but warn off. "We're looking for a way to extract aspects from vampires. The speed and the strength for example. That would be very handy for our military. It would give our soldiers the advantage. It could save countless lives. Surely you see the benefits?"

"No I don't. It's a fantasy. It can't happen."

"And how would you know. You're not exactly a scientist."

"No I'm not," she replied truthfully. "But I have practically spent every waking hour studying vampires. There's no way you can have that kind of power without the bloodlust which would therefore mean you might as well be a vampire. And vampires on the front line, all that blood, would be chaos.

"Besides, our society is not ready to know about them. That's why the majority have been contained to this area. Morganville humans have adapted. Learnt to survive. But that doesn't mean that some people still don't have a vendetta against them. It's a completely ridiculous idea."

"Maybe. But it's an idea nonetheless. We have to try. The US is growing more and more vulnerable. The number of terrorist threats increases every day. We need an advantage and this could well be it," he said. His words were convincing and he did make some points that actually made sense.

"Whatever," Taylor sighed. "You don't need me to agree with you. That's not what you want me for. Lets get this over and done with before Amelie realises that we've all been kidnapped and sets off alarm bells."

"You're right. Untie her Paul," Luke ordered.

"You know you didn't have to put up this façade," she said to Luke whilst Paul made his way over to untie her.

"What do you mean?" he asked confused.

"You didn't need to pretend to be in love with me. You definitely didn't need to marry me for crying out loud."

"Maybe I got a little carried away," he said quietly.

"Yeah well that wasn't fair. I would have done anything for you. Or the you I thought you were. How could you lead me on like that? Do you not have a conscious?"

By now her hands were free but they were clasped in front of her. She looked so desperate for answers. So needy. The look in her eyes would have reduced anyone to fell sorry for her. It worked on Luke because he took a step towards her, hand outstretched.

With more speed than thought humanly possible Taylor reached behind her with one hand, grabbing a gun from Paul's waistband, and grabbed Luke with the other. Then she spun so that her back was against a wall leaving no room for anyone to sneak up behind her. The gun clicked as she turned the safety off.

The men in the room had barely had time to blink. They could all just now see Taylor with a gun pressed up against Luke's temple. "You're not the only one who can act hunny," she said to Luke, who looked terrified.

**Michael POV**

"Please. Let me go," he begged.

"Come on now pretty boy, where's your ego gone," she asked menacingly. It reminded me of something. That was it. The night she tried to torch Monica Morrell. She had the same tormented look in her eyes now as she did back then.

"Come on Taylor we don't want to hurt you. Put the gun down and we can talk about this," Luke said trying to reason with her. He should have known he'd pushed her buttons too much for that to happen.

"Who exactly are you? You're too young to actually be a part of the FBI, so why are you so important that these guys take orders from you?"

"I don't know-"

She cut him off. Despite her asking questions that sounded like they were directed at him, she was musing to herself. "So you must be some kind of relative. Someone high up the food chain otherwise they wouldn't have high enough clearance to know about this." I thought she was distracted by her thoughts. So did the guards because one tried to take a step forward but she pressed the gun harder into Luke's temple. "Don't be stupid," she told him. He retreated whilst holding up his hands as a sign of surrender.

"Plus I've heard the director of the FBI is quite untrustworthy of those around him so that could only mean…" When she trailed off I looked at her confused. "You're his son."

Luke smiled. "I always knew there was a reason that despite it being a cover I was attracted to you. You're smart."

She grinned back but not at his charm. "You're not. I was guessing you fell for it." His smile fell. "Now you're going to tell these gentlemen to let my friends go and then maybe I won't put several rounds into your head. Got that?"

"You won't hurt me," he said. She literally twisted his arm until he said, "Fine. Do what she says."

"Luke you can't be-" Paul started to say.

"Now!" Luke shouted.

"Uh uh uh," Taylor said to the men as they started towards us. "Weapons first." They looked at Luke then they slid their guns across the floor to them before untying us. They took my chains off last. I would have loved to have ripped Paul's head from his neck for hitting Taylor but I was too weak. Wearily we made our over to Taylor who looked slightly calmer now we were free. "Shane," Tay said. "Grab those guns and put them in that bag over there. Not that I don't trust you or anything Pauley." Shane did as he was told. "How many more men are there?"

"It's just us," Luke said.

"Don't lie to me," she laughed.

He sighed. "Just four. Two on each exit."

"Good," she said. "You guys first," she said to us. She added, "Out," when we didn't move. "Come along hunny," she said pulling Luke.

"Wait wait wait," Luke said. "I thought you said you'd let me go."

"No," she said shaking her head. "I do believe I said I wouldn't kill you if you let my friends go. And I won't. But you're our ticket to getting out of here alive. Be patient."

She backed out of the room not tearing her eyes away from the guards. Somehow she managed to keep pointing the gun at Luke and lock the big heavy metal door. There was no way they were going to be getting out anytime soon. "You guys okay," she asked us all. Shane, Eve and Claire all answered but I didn't. I didn't want to lie. "Michael. Are you okay?"

"Ah how sweet. Vampire hunter worried about her vampire boyfriend," Luke sneered.

It didn't provoke a very encouraging reaction form Taylor. "Just because it'll be easier to get out of here with you does not mean I'm past the idea of killing you on the spot. So shut it Daddy's boy." She looked at me still expecting an answer.

"A little weak," I said breathless.

"Do you need-"

"Yeah," I interrupted her to save myself from the embarrassment of admitting I needed to feed.

She clearly understood. "Right jackass, you first," she said to Luke. "And don't do anything stupid." She let him go and he rubbed his shoulder but he didn't move. "Now," she said shoving him.

He did as he was told. Not that he had a choice. Something about her right now made me think that she wasn't joking about the fact she'd kill him on the spot if she had to. Seeing her heart broken in front of me all over again was one of the most horrific things I could have been put through. I'd rather have been stabbed in the arm with another stake. I just wanted to hug her to make her feel better but I didn't want to put her at risk. I could smell both her blood and Shane's. There was no way I was going to allow myself to be tempted. Not in the slightest. Not by Shane and definitely not by Taylor. That's why I choose to walk a couple of steps behind the rest of them.

I didn't really want to hear what Taylor's plan was. I didn't want to see her in danger. Of course though, she was taking charge. She handed Luke off to Shane whilst she quietly and efficiently managed to take out the two guards. I looked over at her worried and then listened. Just as I thought, they were just unconscious. Taylor would never kill someone unless she absolutely had to.

"How exactly do we plan on getting out of here?" Shane reasonably asked.

"We're going to drive obviously," Taylor replied as if he was stupid. She looked around before jogging over to one of the garages. She wasted no time in seeing whether it was open or not. Instead she pulled a clip from her hair and used it as a lock pick. It didn't surprise me she had something like that on her. Obviously, any search they'd performed on her wasn't very thorough.

It took her a matter of seconds before she was pulling the shutters up. We followed her over and watched as she used the gun to smash the window. She reached through the smashed glass and pulled the lock up. "In," she commanded.

"Urgh Tay," Shane said. "What do we do with him?" He meant Luke of course.

"Oh. That's a point," she said. Momentarily she left the car alone and went over to Luke. I was confused when she reached up behind his neck. When he fell to the floor, it only added to my confusion. He didn't get back up again either. "Pressure point," she explained. She went to the back of the car and opened up the trunk then gestured to Shane and myself. "He'll be out for at least an hour. Stick him in the boot. Michael you're up front."

I knew that she only said that because I was worried about hurting the others. Most of the time she always knew what was going on in my head. She wasn't worried about herself and her own safety but she never was. When I joined her in the front she found the wires that she needed to start the car. Something she'd learnt when she was just fourteen. I wasn't impressed at the time but now it was really coming in handy.

The roar of the engine followed shortly after a few sparks from the wiring colliding with each other. I rested my head against the head rest and closed my ears. Claire was muttering in the back to Shane, asking if he was okay. Taylor was uncharacteristically quiet. When Eve asked her if she was okay she just nodded and went back to pretending to pay attention to the road. I knew she was only pretending because just like the hot wiring of the car, I'd learnt from a young age that no matter what, Taylor never paid any attention to where she was driving. The constant blare of car horns that followed her journey was proof of that.

"I don't suppose any of you have your cell phones do you?" she asked us all. Before we could answer she hit the brakes so hard that all of us flew forwards. I managed to catch myself before I hit my head on the dashboard. "Cell phone. Shit. Stay here."

She threw herself from the car and dashed around to the back. It wasn't a good move. I couldn't follow her straight away because I got caught in my seatbelt. She had the advantage because she hadn't been wearing one. I was going to have to have words with her about that later, when we weren't in danger of being killed of course.

"What are you doing?" I asked meeting her at the back of the car. The others were sat in the back obeying her orders.

She popped the trunk open again and searched Luke's, who was still unconscious, pockets. As she pulled out his cell phone she sighed. "It has a GPS tracker," she explained. I understood now. She didn't want us being tracked by the FBI so she threw it on the floor and stomped on it. When we got back in the car, before continuing on our journey, she reversed the car over the phone. "There," she said clearly pleased with herself. "Now onwards."

I assumed that we were heading home so when she stopped the car outside of the hospital I was both confused and concerned. "Why are we stopping here?" I asked.

"You and Shane need help," she replied stepping out.

**Taylor POV**

"You can't park there," a doctor yelled to me.

"Oh really," I shouted back. I wasn't in the mood to be bossed around. "Because it looks like I am. Come on Shane." Firmly I dragged a protesting Shane from the car and up the steps then handed him off to Claire and Eve. "Take him to get stitched up Claire. We'll be up soon."

"Where are we going?" Michael asked when they went through the doors to the entrance and out of sight.

"You need blood," I said. Surely he knew that I wasn't just going to stand there and watch him suffer. "I'm coming with you."

It was clear to him that there was no point in arguing with me. When I was in this kind of mood nobody had a chance of changing my mind. I was being strategic. If we had Michael at full strength and ready for anything, we had an advantage. Begrudgingly he fell into to step with me as I started towards the opposite end of the hospital.

"Maybe it's not a good idea for you to come in," he said as I attempted to open the door. He pressed it firmly shut so I had no chance. "There are probably a lot of hungry vamps in there right now and you've got blood on you."

"Do I look like I care?"

He half smiled. "No. That's the problem." Sighing he opened up the door and held it wide for me to walk through.

I waited with him as he signed a couple of forms and stood in line. It was kind of weird. Just like queuing to buy your shopping at a supermarket except you could only get blood here. I got many glares from the other vampires in the room. It should have felt intimidating being the only prey with a pulse in the room but I was unaffected.

Michael on the other hand wasn't. He shifted, staring at every one of them in turn, warning them not to even think about touching me. That concerned me. I didn't want him getting hurt trying to protect me. Luckily though, he looked serious enough that they all stayed away.

He turned away from me to drink the blood. "Feel better?" I asked as he tossed the empty bottle in the bin.

"Much," he replied.

"Good." I reached up and rubbed the dirt off of his face. The tops of his ears turned pink and I smiled. It was cute that vampires could still blush and feel embarrassed. "Go and find someone willing to lend you their phone. Amelie needs to know about this. I should have told her from the beginning. She's going to be pissed."

"No way. No splitting up. We stay together. It's not safe."

"It never is…"

* * *

><p><strong>Hey guys. I'm going on holiday for two weeks soon so this'll be the last update till I get back on the 17th of August. I'll put the next chapter up as soon as I get home.<br>Thanks for reading xx**


	11. Explanations

Chapter Eleven

We found a very nice person (vampire) who was generous enough to lend us his cell phone so that we could call Amelie. At first he'd said 'Sure, as long as I can have a taste of that perfume you're sporting', clearly meaning my blood, but then Michael threw him straight threw the windscreen of his own car and he gave it to us with no problem. And who said society nowadays had gone to the dogs?

I told Michael I'd ring Amelie. That it would be better coming from me. That was a lie. She wouldn't take the news Morganville had been infiltrated by a team of federal officers very well from anyone but I didn't want Michael to be on the receiving end of it. He wouldn't be involved in the first place if not for me. Neither would Eve, Shane or Claire but I could only worry about so much at once.

"Amelie calm down," I tried to reason after explaining what had happened. Like I thought, she didn't take it extremely well. She had just paused long enough from shouting at me that I could manage to squeeze a few words in.

"Do not tell me to calm down child. You stay right where you are. I'm coming," she said and hung up on the phone. I turned to Michael. He'd heard and gathered how much trouble I was in. He opened his mouth to say something but was cut off.

Before I was even aware, I was shoved so hard against the closest wall it could have cracked my spine. I mentally processed the situation and realised that it was Amelie who was violently shaking me by the shoulders. She looked angrier than I'd ever seen her and that was saying something because I'd pissed her off pretty badly at times.

"You brainless, insolent child. How could you be so stupid as to put the safety of Morganville at risk? I trusted you to protect the secrets of this town and you have failed to do this because you couldn't keep your feelings under control," she shouted. The passing people were doing their best not to pay attention to what was going on. Michael on the other hand had been restrained as he tried to step between the two of us to prevent any real damage being done. "Don't' you have anything to say for yourself?"

I screwed up," I told her. There was nothing else I could really say. It was the truth. I really had.

She sighed angrily and let go of me. It hurt when she removed her tight grip. The return of blood flow was extremely painful. "Yes, you have. But what's done is done. Now we just have to clean up your mess. Where is the boy?"

"Luke?" I asked surprised at her sudden calmness. She nodded. "In the car. Why?"

"He will tell us all we need to know and then he will be tried for crimes against Morganville."

"No!" I blurted out.

She shot a dark glare at me. "I'm not asking Taylor. You got us into this mess. You put me in this position. You've done enough. Do not make this situation any more difficult by resisting."

"You can't. Please, it's not his fault." I had no idea why I was trying to protect him. It felt like basic instinct. After all, every word he'd ever said to me had been a lie but a part of me refused to accept that. It refused to let him go.

"Why you're saying this rubbish I don't know." Good, that made two of us. "He never loved you and he never will." Ouch. Harsh.

"I know that," I said. "But if anyone should be on trial it's me."

"Do not tempt me." She looked to her guards. "Fetch me the boy. I will stay here. As I attempted to go after them, Michael grabbed me. The look on his face was so stern. He didn't want me getting hurt by being an idiot.

Looking into his bright blue eyes I felt my whole body become less rigid and relax. I felt like everything was becoming more bearable, like I didn't want to fight and- No!

As hard as I could I shoved him square in the chest away from me. The surprise attack made him stumble. "Don't you dare try using your vampy powers on me." He looked down in shame. I couldn't believe he'd try and do that to anyone let alone me. "You know what, he may not have really cared about me but Luke was right about one thing. Being a vampire really has changed you. I don't feel like I even know who you are anymore."

That hit home. He flinched at my words but tried to recover quickly. "Of course it's changed me," he said pleading me to understand. He reclaimed the step I'd pushed him only moments ago. "But I'm still me. Still your Michael." If only. How I secretly wished he was still my Michael. All I'd ever wanted was him but I was stupid enough to let him go without a fight. And now things were way too complicated to even begin to uncover. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

"It better not."

"Ma'am," Travis, one of Amelie's guards, interrupted. "He's not there."

She turned on me fast. "Hey," I said quickly. "I have nothing to do with it. I've been with Michael the whole time."

"She's right," he stepped in eager to both clear my name and get into my good books. "Literally the whole time. Even when I had to… urm… drink."

From his uncomfortable shift at the mention of him having to drink blood in front of me, she knew he was telling the truth. "This is great. You couldn't have done a better job of keeping him secured?"

"Sorry but I was a little too worried about the fact Shane needed stitches and Michael needed blood to help him heal after being tortured with silver and wooden stakes. I had my priorities and I'll stick by them. Any way, he was out when I left him and should have been for at least another hour."

"Well if there's one thing I know you can do its keep people unconscious for long periods of time. That can only mean the people who he was with found him. How I do not know but they could still be here. Sweep the perimeter," she directed to everyone but us.

"What do you want us to do?" I asked.

"Nothing. I'll assign some people to you. They'll take you home and make sure you're all safe."

"But-"

"No. You're too involved in this one. Plus it's still dark and you're covered in your own blood. You're a sitting duck out here.

It was an order I knew full well not to argue with. If they needed my help they'd ask for it. "There'll be a car round front shortly. Get the other trouble makers and go."

With that she disappeared. "That went well," Michael said. Unsure of whether he was being sarcastic or not I rolled my eyes. "Best do what she says."

"Yeah," I sighed in defeat.

"Hey," he started as we walked around the outer building of the hospital. "Are we okay?"

"We'll be fine. No thanks to me. Amelie'll keep you guys safe."

"That's not what I meant. Are we okay? Me and you."

"Oh." I didn't expect him to bring it up in a situation like this. I thought I'd be able to get away with having this little chat. How mistaken was I to think he'd let it go? My only real option was to play it simple. "Of course we are."

"Really? Because I thought you were pissed with me."

"I was but I'm a little preoccupied to deal with the teenage drama that's surfacing right now. I haven't got time."

He grabbed my arm and stopped me. "Then make time. I know you've just had your heart crushed but I need to know if this changes anything. I need to know how you really feel."

"I-"

"Hey. There you guys are. We were looking for you." Phew. Saved by Shane.

I pulled myself away from Michael who reluctantly let go. "You okay?" I asked him.

"Just a flesh wound," he answered smiling goofily at me. "Less stitches than that time you forced me to climb that metal fence and a spike went through my arm."

"You said you got that scar from fighting in school," Claire said.

Michael and Eve laughed. "Yeah right," Eve said through her laughing fit. "Tay was drunk and she managed to climb straight over that fence. Shane was completely sober, decided to after her and slipped. Then he fainted from seeing the metal in his arm."

"I did not faint," Shane said quickly. His face was starting to turn pink from the very mention of it.

"Yes you did," Eve and Michael said at the same time. They shared a forced smile. Why did I have to ruin everything? From what I'd heard they'd had a really good relationship despite him being a vampire and were good friends before that. I looked away. I couldn't bear to stand them looking so uncomfortable with each other. That was my fault. I should have just stayed away.

"Whatever," he said ignoring Claire who was laughing at him along with the other two. "You feeling better now Mike?"

"Yeah. We need to go. Amelie's got us under protected custody." The three of them looked at him confused. "I'll explain on the way. Let's go."


	12. Awkward

Chapter Twelve

On the way back to the Glass house I was forced to sit in between Michael and Eve. It was the most awkward car journey of my entire life. The two barely looked in each other's direction the whole time let alone said anything to each other. I felt so guilty. Shane definitely knew why and he'd probably told Claire what a home wrecking bitch I was.

When we pulled up I bailed out only to be caught by Travis. "Slow down Miss. We haven't checked inside."

"This is ridiculous," I muttered throwing myself down to the curb. Shortly after, the two vampires who'd gone inside came out and gave the all clear. As the rest of them started towards the door I stayed put. I was tired, my muscles ached from the effects of the drugs I'd been given and I wasn't in the mood to be babysat. When the guys saw I had no attention of following, they also halted despite Travis's concerns about their safety.

"Tay don't start," Eve said. "Just come inside with us." I wasn't really bothered about what she wanted. She for one would be better off if I were to just leave. Maybe she and Michael would be able to work things out without me getting in the way and confusing Michael's feelings for her. "Please," she added. I looked around and saw she was giving me her sad puppy face which always got me and she knew it.

I brushed the gravel off of my jeans and followed them inside. Or at least tried to as one of the vampires took up the rear. This was going to be fun. Were they just going to wrap us up in cotton wool to stop is getting hurt? I'd love to see them try. Giving someone a beating was exactly what I needed. I just wished I could find a way to make that person myself. I was the one who deserved it the most. I suppose if I picked a fight with them and didn't try to win they'd have no choice but to defend themselves resulting in me getting hurt one way or another. Amelie had probably expected this though and warned them not to do anything about it.

The house was a mess. The front door was hanging by only one hinge and it was splintering in all directions. Not to mention the fact that objects all over were upturned or broken. I'd be surprised but I'd come across the FBI before. They didn't hold any prisoners. They'd do whatever they were told at any cost. Not caring who got hurt. In this case, it was my friends. But this time they weren't going to get away with it. They'd messed with the wrong person's life this time.

"Not again," Shane moaned fiddling with a piece of the broken door. "How many times have we had to fix this door?"

"Too many," Michael sighed. He started making his way around the house shutting the curtains as he went. Some had rips in which made him shake his head. "We'll have to fix this before it gets light out." He looked at his watch and his eyes widened. "Sunrise in ten minutes," he stated.

I left them to their discussion and went into the kitchen. It annoyed me when one of the guards followed but I choose to ignore them. I knew where everything I was trying to find was already so there was no delay in searching. Michael hadn't bothered to move anything around when his parents moved out.

Opening the door made the conversation die down which could only mean they were talking about me. Pretending I hadn't noticed I walked over to the windows and ripped the curtains down. "Woah," Shane said grabbing my wrist. "We said fix them not make them completely useless. You trying to make Mikey burn more than toast when I cook it?"

I flinched. "I think Michael's been burnt enough today because of me," I said sharply. Sensing I was in no mood to be messed with he dropped my wrist and backed away, arms raised. With the scissors, duct tape and bin liners I'd acquired, it took me minutes to make the window sun proof. I repeated this process until all the curtains were replaced with makeshift ones.

I didn't sit with them when I was done. I couldn't do it. Guilt was not an emotion I took pride in having. So instead, I sat in the furthest corner of the room being propped up by a bookcase. Nobody attempted to talk to me but I did catch the odd stare in my direction. They were mainly from Michael but the others definitely got their fair share in there.

At some point in the tediously early morning the girls went up to bed leaving Shane fixing the door, Michael playing his guitar (an item that was luckily unharmed. Thank God, I loved that guitar) and myself in the exact same position I had sat down in hours ago.

Things were starting to sink in now. The last few years of my life had been a complete and utter lie. And I'd fallen for every word of it. How stupid was I to think that any man would be fully capable of loving me? Of putting up with the life I openly led. Even Michael had had enough of me and dumped me. Of course he said he had his reasons and that he was just trying to help but he was right to escape the train wreck that was my life when he did.

My life's reflection was shattered when a bottle was thrown at me. "Ow," I said before I was sure it hurt.

"Sorry," Shane said. "You looked thirsty. Besides, I thought you had better reflexes than that. What with being a vampire hunter and all."

I sighed. "For the last time Shane, I'm not a vampire hunter. You play way to many video games."

"Whatever you say. Speaking of video games, wanna play?"

"I'm not in the mood Shane."

"Hey guys," Michael said causing me and Shane to stop talking and turn to him. "I'm gonna go up to bed."

"Night man," Shane said.

Michael looked at me, waiting for me to say something. I didn't dare. "Yeah," he said and began up the stairs.

"You could at least pretend like you care," Shane said when we heard Michael's bedroom door shut. My head snapped up shocked. How could Shane honestly think I didn't care about Michael. Sometimes I was sure that boy only pretended to know so much about me. "It hurts him when you're like this."

"Shane, of course I care. That's why I have to get away from here as soon as possible."

"And you think that's what he wants?"

I shook my head. He couldn't understand my motives. Shane was a caring guy when he wanted to be but that didn't make him complex. "It doesn't matter what he wants." I rose to my feet and headed towards the stairs.

Peace, that was what I needed. And the perfect place for that was the secret room. Of course there were other reasons for wanting to go there. It was the one place that Michael used to take me where we could be properly alone. No interruptions from friends, parents or vampires. It was stupid but I couldn't help but think about what Michael had said.

My attention however when I got to the top of the stairs was drown to Michael's room. I wanted to see him on our own that was for certain. It didn't take a lot of self encouragement to do it. Like I owned the place I strode the short way across the hallway and opened Michael's door.


	13. Déjà Vu

Chapter Thirteen

Amelie POV:

I didn't make a habit of visiting Common Grounds. Being seen in public was a little degrading but for today I could make an exception. If it was between the safety of my town and its people or a tiny piece of dignity, on this one occasion, I'd choose Morganville.

It still baffled me how such an intelligent girl like Taylor had gotten us into this mess. If it were anyone else they'd be dead but I'd always had a soft spot for her. Perhaps it was the fact she was an orphan or the way she conducted herself with as much grace as I did when I was just a human. Who knew?

On thing I did know, was that she hadn't done it on purpose. She was one of the few humans who actually cared about this town. Almost as much as I did it seemed. Whatever the case, I knew how truly sorry she was and that was the reason she was still alive. Oliver however wouldn't be anywhere near as understanding. He'd want her blood. Something that he definitely wasn't getting for more than just the fact I cared for the girl.

Michael loved her very much. And I owed it to his Sam, a man who sacrificed himself to save the rest of us, to make sure that his grandson had a happy life. He needed her for that, whether they both knew it or not. I didn't particularly feel like playing cupid but I would if it came to it

Oliver was behind the counter serving one of his customers. That man didn't have any dignity left to lose. He'd been basically a servant to the humans for years now. It was pathetic. Of course I'd never told him that. He probably would've taken offense. He looked up as the bell above the door announced my arrival but it was brief. He turned back to finishing what he was doing before taking off his apron and walking out from the counter.

"Amelie. I presume you're not here for coffee," he said.

"You'd presume right Oliver," I replied.

"Well shall we take this somewhere a little more private?"

I looked around at the room full of students. So innocent and unaware. Apart from a few who you could tell were natives. They carried themselves with a little more maturity than the rest, knowing the dangers. They were also the only ones who noted my arrival. "Let's."

Allowing Oliver to lead me to his office at the back of the shop I gestured for my two guards to wait outside. Oliver took a seat behind his desk. "You must excuse the mess," he said whilst shuffling a pile of papers. "What brings you out so unexpectedly?"

"We have a problem?"

Michael POV:

Tay had been practically silent since we got home. Occasionally she'd speak when spoken to but no one dared to speak to her often. Especially me. It was entirely my fault. You may ask how I came to that conclusion and I'd quite happily tell you.

Taylor was heartbroken. A man whom she'd trusted and had given her heart to had betrayed her, lied to her and made her think she was worthless. The only reason she'd met him in the first place was because she had asked to leave Morganville. The reason she wanted to leave Morganville was because I had left her with no one. I'd broken up with her when she was at her weakest and needed me the most. I left her with no option but to run away from her life. Therefore making it my fault.

I wanted to talk to her about it. Talking about things generally made them better, even if it was minutely. I'd confused things though. Brought things up at the wrong time. I couldn't help it, I just wanted to make things right. So far though my attempts to make things right had failed so I decided to just give her some space. Both literally and metaphorically.

I stood up and put my guitar back in its case. "Hey guys," I said. Shane stopped his mini argument with Taylor and looked over at me. Taylor didn't. "I'm gonna go up to bed."

"Night man," Shane said.

I stared at her, waiting for her to respond in one way or another. Even to just acknowledge me. I waited but it didn't happen. "Yeah," I said to Shane. Slowly, because I was hoping she'd change her stubborn mind set and talk to me, I walked upstairs to my room.

She'd ignored me. Completely ignored me. Yeah she was upset, I could understand that. Didn't change the fact that it hurt. I couldn't hear anything from downstairs. I knew they were probably waiting for what they thought was me to be a safe distance away so they could talk without me hearing. If I tried I could listen to their conversation but I really didn't want to know what they had to say. So I shut my door and placed my guitar on my bed.

Now I was on my own my sympathy for Taylor was turning into something else. I could still feel it but the thing about being a vampire is that you can feel a lot at once. Sometimes it could be a good thing but right now, not so much. I was angry. How someone could be so heartless as to manipulate such a compassionate girl as Taylor was beyond me. She only ever wanted to help, to keep people safe and they threw it back in her face.

The anger was so bad I couldn't really move. I was frozen to the spot in the centre of my room. It wasn't often a vampire was taken by surprise but if anyone could do it, it was Taylor. I spun around and saw her stood in the doorway looking conflicted. Still hadn't mastered the art of knocking I observed.

"Hey," I managed to say. She looked at me biting her lip. That was her nervous habit. What could she have to be nervous about? "You okay?" One quick nod was all I got. "Do you err… want to come in?" She looked around and seemed to realise that she was still half out the door. A few seconds of deliberating later, she came inside and gently shut the door. Though she came in, it wasn't far. She just leant against the door. To be honest I felt a little self conscious. "Was there something you wanted?"

"Umm…" she paused. "No I guess there wasn't."

"Right," I said unsure what to say next. Looking at her, I realised that she looked dead on her feet. I wondered when the last time she slept properly was. "Why don't you sit down? You look exhausted."

That was something she didn't need much encouraging with. Obviously she felt as tired as she looked. I left her a little space but sat next to her on my bed. There was silence for a few moments but then she realised something. She reached over and opened up my guitar case. "I can't believe you still have this," she said, taking my guitar back out of its case.

"Of course. It was my first guitar. Well practically anyway. It's had to restrung several times but apart from that…" I trailed off because she didn't look like she was listening to me anymore. Instead she was running her fingers up and down the fret board. "You still play?"

"Huh?" she said snapping out of her trance.

"Guitar. Do you still play?"

She shook her head. "Not really. Haven't really had the time lately. Besides, I could never be as good as you," she chuckled. I smiled.

"Well you should be. I taught you."

"Yes you did," she said quietly with a thin smile spread across her lips. She was probably remembering just as I was. One summer she came around my house and saw me playing. For the next few hours she then insisted until I finally gave in that I had to teach her how to play. At first I thought it'd be one of those things that she wanted to do and it would only last for a couple of days but I had to admit that she was great and picked it up extremely quickly. I also found out that day that she was a really good singer.

"Hey do you remember-"

"Our band?" she cut in the smile spreading.

"Yeah," I said laughing. To my surprise, she started laughing too.

"Ah. The X Mystery. I haven't thought about that little project in a long time."

"I haven't wanted to think about that in a long. We were so bad," I reminded her. Like she needed reminding. The band consisted of me, Taylor and Shane. Shane was our biggest downfall. I played bass guitar and sang, Taylor played lead guitar and sang and Shane played… drums. We were quite good, Shane on the other hand didn't really know how to play drums but we needed a drummer so we had no choice. Mainly we covered Blink 182 but we disbanded, no pun intended, after a couple of months due to Shane driving us insane with the drums.

We looked at each other and burst out in hysterical laughter. When it died down she looked away from me again back to the guitar. "What happened to us?" I asked.

"Taylor syndrome," she said smiling a little. I looked at her confused. When she saw she went on to explain. "I have this crazy little ability to screw everything up. Including myself." She carried on before I could say anything. "You know when I left, I hated everything. I hated you, I hated myself, I hated this town. I thought it was poison. Turns out, the only thing that was poisonous was me. Wherever I go, I infect people and ruin things. It just took some distance from everything familiar to realise it."

She put my guitar back in its case and looked at me. I was stunned into silence. I knew that she'd been low, verging on clinically depressed when she left, but I assumed it was better. That she was better. But yet, she still had as poor a self image as ever. "The people around me always get hurt," she continued. "My parents, Alyssa and now you guys. I'm not doing it anymore. I can't do it anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"Once this is over with I'm leaving. I just wanted you to know."

"When did you decide this?"

"Just now actually."

Quick Michael, think! There has to be something you can say to get her to change her mind. "Amelie won't let you," I blurted out. What? 'Amelie won't let you.' Why would that discourage her? Idiot.

Just as I thought she smirked but didn't say anything. "I'm sorry Michael. I've made your life hell. And I don't just mean the recent events. All I've ever done is hurt you and that's not gonna happen anymore."

I didn't like the tone of her voice. She was talking like the end was near for her and that scared me. A world without Taylor would not be worth it for me. Even if we couldn't be together at least I'd know she was out there somewhere. Safe and happy. "I-"

"Shh," she sighed. "I don't want to argue anymore." She leant over and gently kissed me on the lips. It was sweet and didn't last nearly as long as I would have liked it to. Within a few seconds she pulled away and stood up. "I've always loved you," she whispered.

Whilst I was running through the events in my head trying to catch up, she smiled a little and walked over to the door. She grabbed the door handle, took a deep breath and left my room without looking back.

After a minute I realised why I was so shocked. I thought it was déjà vu but no, I really had done this before. Just last time, I wasn't a vampire. This was how she left me before. When she told me she was leaving Morganville for good and my whole world shattered around me. My chest tightened at the thought as I felt a single tear roll slowly down my cheek…

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><p>Okay so I'm back. Hopefully (I say hopefully don't hold me on it) with more regular, longer updates.<p>

Thanks for reading, I hope you're liking it.

Please do review/favourite and all that other stuff.

Really appreciate you guys.

Love Paige xxx


	14. Noise

Chapter Fourteen

Claire POV:

Quietly so that I didn't disturb anyone, I crept out of my room and down the stairs, carefully avoiding the creaky floorboard at the top. It was mostly Michael I was worried about waking up. Shane could sleep through world war three and Eve wasn't far off. I yawned again as I stretched. Why did sleeping longer have to make you more tired?

It was 9pm and I figured the guys would still be in bed. I'd slept for way too long already. Why did sleeping longer have to make you more tired? Shane had snuck into my room at some point without my realising it so it was a surprise to find him snoring next to me when I woke up. Well actually, not the snoring, that was what had woken me up.

I'd thought about checking in on Taylor but that meant going into Eve's room and possible waking Eve up. Grouchy Eve was not something I wanted to deal with right now. Besides, Taylor probably didn't want to talk.

Just as I reached for the TV remote that was on the table, I heard a noise from inside the kitchen. It was so quiet I wasn't sure if I was just imagining or not. I pulled back my arm and looked towards the stairs. It could've come from up there I suppose. I was probably just panicking because what had happened yesterday but I couldn't help it. It was a horrible feeling having your home, supposedly a safe place, being invaded.

Breathing in to calm myself I did my best to pull myself together. I had to be brave. It was probably nothing anyway. Just in case, I went and found a crossbow. With my heart beating in my mouth, I paused outside the kitchen door before kicking it open, prepared to face what was there.

"Taylor!" I exclaimed. Or at least tried to. It came out so quiet because of how frightened I was. I fell back and leant against the wall. When I regained my breath I opened my eyes. Taylor was looking at me as if I were completely mad. "You scared the shit out of me," I whispered.

"Sorry. I thought you were asleep," she replied calmly, as if I hadn't just burst into the room pointing a fully loaded crossbow at her, and went back to cleaning the gun she had in hand. Wait a second, she had a gun. Why did she have a gun?

"Taylor," I said clutching the crossbow a bit tighter. Obviously I didn't intend to use it on her but it was instinct. Well, less instinct more what Morganville did to you. "What are you doing?"

"Just cleaning," she said.

"Why?"

"Best to be prepared."

Prepared? Prepared for what? Did she know something we didn't? "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing for you to worry about Claire." She put the gun back together. I must admit, all the metal clicking was terrifying. I'd always hated guns. "Let's just keep this between us shall we."

Taylor stood up soundlessly and packed the numerous weapons that were laid across the table into a rucksack. Some of the things she had didn't look like they'd be any use to fight a vampire. Unless… of course. She didn't need to. The FBI were human and right now she was probably more pissed off with them than with the entire vampire population combined.

"Keep what between us?" I asked. The fact that she had enough ammo to take out a small army.

"I hoped I wouldn't have to deal with this. I was planning on leaving before any of you woke up. Should've been quicker." Somehow, although it looked like it weighed a tonne, she swung the rucksack onto her back. "Look Claire, you can't tell anyone about this. I need to go."

"Go where? Its night time, you can't go out by yourself. If you really need to I'm sure Michael will take you wherever you need to go."

She laughed a little. "I have lived in Morganville for most of my life Claire. I know how to look after myself."

Oh God. Why did she have to put me in this position? I could understand, she was capable of looking after herself, she was independent. Just like me. But at the same time, if I let her go the guys would kill me. I felt like screaming. Screaming! That was it. As load as I could I let out a full on shriek.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"Mouse," I said. It was the first thing that came to mind.

Before the entire word had left my mouth she was clambering up so she was stood on the table. "Where?"

I opened my mouth to speak but the door that I had only just shut was smashed open by a blur. The blur settled into Michael. Shirtless and eyes ablaze. "What's going on?" he shouted. He looked at Taylor stood on the table baffled. "Why are you stood on the table?"

The poor door that had already had quite a difficult night already was swung open once again. Shane appeared with Eve close behind, both had stakes in hand. "What the fuck is all the screaming about?" he said. I looked at Taylor who seemed oblivious to the arrivals. She was too busy scanning the floor. Could it be that Taylor, who had been so fearless in the face of torture, was scared of mice? I really couldn't have planned that better.

Shane walked further into the kitchen, relaxing since he sensed no actual threat. He ran his hand through his bed hair. "What's going on?"

"Claire saw a mouse," Taylor said.

"A mouse?" he said looking around. Slowly a grin grew on his face. He looked to Taylor. "Ah Tay. Still haven't got over your fear of rodents?"

She flipped him off. "Fuck off Shane. They're creepy."

"Ah all they want is a bit of love. And maybe some cheese," he taunted.

"I'm gonna refer you to my earlier statement. Fuck off." She deemed it safe enough to step off the table. The only thing different was that the bag was gone. I scanned the room now just not looking for the imaginary mouse. The bag she'd was under the table just slightly sticking out. "Any way, show's over. You can all go back to bed."

"So doing that," Eve said.

"Me too. It's too early… late," Shane stammered. "Whatever. I'm beat."

"I'm going up to bed to," Taylor said.

Michael shook his head at them all and moved over to the sink, grabbing a glass of water. When he turned around, I knew the bag had caught his eye straight away. His brow furrowed as he reached down, picked it up and looked inside. "What's this?" he asked.

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><p><strong>Sorry it's short but I have a backload of coursework that was supposed to be due in four months ago that I've needed to do. It's an important year for me which means hard work, something I'm not very good at so yeah... sorry.<strong>

**Thanks for reading guys xx**


	15. Broken

Chapter Fifteen

She knew she'd been caught out. I watched as she scrunched her eyes shut and stop dead. She thought she'd gotten away with it but she'd underestimated a vampire's keen eyesight. "Someone care to explain?" Michael added when Taylor didn't turn around and I just stared at Taylor. "Claire?"

I looked at him. His narrowed his eyes as he scrutinized my face. "Claire," he repeated.

"What?" I replied.

"Has this got something to do with you?"

"Umm… I…" I stammered not knowing what to say. He'd go mental if he found out it was Taylor's bag although, he was probably already aware that that was a major prospect.

"No," Taylor sighed and turned away from me to him. "Your culprit is Morganville's number one trouble. That's mine," she said gesturing towards the bag he had in his hand. "And no I would not 'care to explain.'" She air quoted his earlier phrase and walked out into the living room.

Like Michael would let it go that easily. He made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat and followed her after dropping the bag on the floor. "Taylor," he said. "Tay do not walk away from me!"

I followed feeling guilty. If they started arguing again it would be my fault. Trying to not to attract any attention to myself I stood just outside the kitchen door. "Taylor Ruby Anderson will you stop being the ultimate drama queen for one second and look at me."

"I am not a drama queen," she shouted turning on her heels causing Michael to come to a sudden stop.

"Oh really?" he asked her sarcastically. "Because right now you're giving Shane a run for his money."

If looks could kill Michael would be in the middle of the street at noon with a silver coated stake firmly placed in his heart. "I don't have to answer to you," she said stubbornly folding her arms across her chest.

"The hell you don't!" he shouted. "This is my house. My rules."

"Fine. If that's the way you want to play it I'll quite happily leave." Taylor brushed past him coming towards me. I could see Michael's whole body tense. Before I realised what was happening, Michael had Taylor pinned up against a wall.

It was terrifying. Michael Glass was the calm level headed one of the group. He kept the rest of us sane in times of trouble. But right now, you'd never know that that part of him existed. His eyes were wild and if I wasn't mistaken, they were slightly tinted red. "You are not going anywhere," he said firmly.

"Michael get the fuck off me!" she screamed at him. It wasn't a scream of fear, it was a scream fuelled by pure anger. "I mean it."

"No. And I mean that. I've had enough. You've always done what you want to do. It's selfish. It's dangerous. Do you have any idea what you're doing to me? I care about you. I always have. Yet you never make it easy. You're always on some crusade because you're angry. Yeah your parents died, yeah Alyssa died. Get the fuck over it! Shane did. He calmed down, he… he settled down. If you just stop being such a bitch for one minute you'd realise that there are people around you who love you. Who want what's best for you." He stopped seemingly breathless.

He made another frustrated sound and let her go. "God why do you have to be so fucking difficult?" he asked through bared teeth. By now, Eve and Shane had returned downstairs. They were wide awake now, no hint of weariness. We watched as Michael ran his ands through his hair and dug his fingers into his scalp. I'd never ever seen Michael this angry and by the looks of it, neither had anyone else. Even Taylor who was well composed looked shocked at his outburst.

He sank down on the couch, head in his hands. "What did you do?" Shane asked Taylor.

"Nothing," she lied. It sounded like a reflex action rather than one she actually thought about.

"Well you must have done something because you're the only one who can make this idiot that angry. You know how to push his buttons. So I'll ask again. What did you do?" Shane sounded so grown up it was weird. He was never the one to take the mature lead.

"He found a bag of weapons and completely flipped out," she said simply. It was slightly true I guess but that wasn't the reason he was angry. We all had weapons. It was no big deal. He was pissed because he knew she was trying to leave.

Now it was Michael's turn to scowl. His head snapped up and he said, "What Taylor actually means is that she was planning to go out on a little federal hunting trip. Without telling any of us I might add."

Shane open and shut his mouth again. I think he was just expecting it to be another domestic like they had been arguing about just yesterday. That was what he was prepared for so this left him stumped.

"Are you sure?" Eve interjected. "I mean why would she do that? You wouldn't do that would you Tay?" The look on Taylor's face was worth a thousand words. "Oh," Eve said. "Of course she would."

"I'm sorry," she said pleadingly. For whatever reason whenever Eve was upset about something Taylor's hare exterior crumbled. They must have been really good friends back in the day. "I knew you guys would want to come with me. And that was what I wanted to avoid."

"So you were leaving without even saying goodbye. You could've got killed and we wouldn't have even known. What were you thinking?" Eve asked.

"What was I thinking? I was thinking that enough people have died in Morganville and some how I don't. I'm a survivor Eve, when everyone else dies, I keep on living. And you know what? It sucks. I didn't want to have to be the girl sat at anyone of your funerals. I refuse to be that girl anymore. I won't do it. I will not put those people whom I love at risk.

"Because despite what Michael thinks, I am capable of love. Yes, I love him. I love you guys. I loved my parents. And look where that got me. Alone. Broken and alone," she said before losing all hope and sliding down the wall Michael had only moments ago shoved her against.

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><p><strong>There's your next installment. I hope you enjoyed ^_^<strong>

**Please review, tell me what you thought. I'd like to hear all feedback so if you have any improvements you think I should make or anything you think I need to include please please please tell me. **

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**Paige xD**


	16. Game Plan

**I know, me updating twice in one week. What is this? Makes a change right? Before you get the next chapter I'd quickly like to thank these people: **

**Nikki Gargol, lovingbites, lAuRaa'XD, dream quest and SpOrTyNo1 for their reviews. **

**Also a really special thanks to SpOrTyNo1 for her really sweet message, it meant so much 3**

**Anyway, here you go :)**

Chapter Sixteen

Eve POV:

Watching Taylor slide down to the ground killed me. She was my best friend… well one of them anyway. Claire and I were obviously pretty close now but I assumed Taylor always knew that she could come to me. The fact she thought she was alone was ridiculous. 75% of people and vampires in Morganville loved her and the rest of them were all Monica worshipers so were basically scum.

I felt sorry for her. She'd lost her husband. Not like he was dead or anything (yet) but it was the same thing. It was weird because despite the fact not even 24 hours ago I'd broken up with Michael, it was Taylor whom I had the most sympathy for. I guess I was always resigned today the idea that one day Tay would breeze back into our lives and make Michael fall head over heels for her all over again. It was something that was inevitable.

They were absolutely ideal for one and other, in both personality and physical appearance. Yeah I was confident in myself but she was the perfect girl next door type. Beautiful not sexy. Gorgeous not hot. The ultimate looker.

What was I doing? My best friend was upset and I was just stood here reminiscing. I was a bad person. "Hey," I said to her. She looked up at me and I could see a tear glistening in the corner of her eye. Shit. Taylor wasn't like me. I cried all the time over tiny little things. She hardly ever cried and when she did there was something really wrong.

I walked over and sat down next to her on the cold hardwood floor. "You," I said wrapping my arm around her. "You will never be alone. Now I think I can speak for everyone in this room when say that we are all here for you. For as long as we live, and that'll be quite a while because there's a smitten vampire sat over there, we will always be here for you."

She laughed slightly and I tightened my grip. "There we go. That's what I like to see," I said. "Now why don't we all talk about this over something to eat?"

"I-" she started but I wasn't having any of it.

"That may have sounded like a question but it really wasn't. What's it called when you don't need an answer?"

"Rhetorical," the brain box (Claire Bear) interjected.

"Yeah well it was that. I blame you for my lack of knowledge. You always distracted me in high school," I joked.

"Did not," she answered reflexively.

"I'll put something together. There should be some leftovers in the fridge," Claire said as she found her way to the kitchen.

"She's great isn't she," Taylor said when Claire was out of the room.

"Yeah she is," Shane said with a cute little smile on his face.

"Ah look Shane's gone all soft on us," I teased. I couldn't resist. It was an opportunity I just couldn't pass up. Too easy. He'd do the same. In fact on many occasion he had.

"Shut it Queen of the Dead," he said the smile turning into a scowl.

"Don't start," Michael sighed. He sounded like a dad who'd just come home from a long day at work to find his two children arguing over a toy. To be honest Michael often sounded like this around Shane and I. We did bicker the majority of the time. That was just because we were so similar to each other and neither of us could let the little things slide without some sort of comment.

I opened my mouth to say something back but realised it was most probably not the best idea in the world. Michael was so angry right now. I didn't fancy being on the receiving end. If he could lose his temper at Taylor I didn't have a hope in hells chance of getting away with it.

"Come on its cold down here." I stood up and pulled her to her feet also.

"You think this is cold you've obviously never been to England," she laughed. I could tell she was trying really hard to make conversation which I was grateful for.

We all sat down at the table to eat. Claire had made spaghetti. Not the most imaginative dish but we were all starving. Well most of us. Taylor and Michael appeared to not be. Both just played scraped their food around the plate instead of outing it in their mouths. They didn't look up from it either. What was really so interesting about pasta?

"We need a plan," Shane said after five solid minutes of silence. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was always the first to break the silence but I would always say something ridiculous and unimportant. Shane however got straight to the point. It was about time someone took charge. "How are we going to handle this?"

"Handle what?" Taylor asked.

"It's obvious you're intent on going out and finding these guys so we need strategy. They'll have one, ours needs to be better. And before you say it yes we know you don't want us to come with you but you have no choice. We're not letting you go it alone. Most of us here were brought up in Morganville too. We're more than capable of looking after ourselves." She didn't know what to say. He hadn't let her interrupt, which she planned on, so now she was stuck.

"Shane's right," Michael said. Everyone looked over at him to explain himself. Shane wore an expression that clearly read 'Am I?' He wasn't used to being right. This was Shane he was never right. "Yes as much as I hate to admit it Shane is right. You need us. We're useful."

There were a few moments of silence. Taylor looked around and read our faces one by one. I tried to make mine a mask of determination. Finally she sighed. "Fine," she said. "You guys come with but you do exactly as I say. I don't want anyone," she said stressing the last word. "Getting hurt. Is that clear?"

We all nodded. "Okay," she said. "Then we need our game plan sorted." A thin, evil smile spread across her face. Clearly she already had one and things weren't going to look pretty…

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><p><strong>What do you think? I thought I'd give a little of Eve's perspective on the situation. More to come soon (hopefully).<strong>

**CompleteBlackout xx**


	17. Next Step

Chapter Seventeen 

Claire POV:

"I can think of only one way to do this. And you're not going to like it," Taylor stated.

"Go on," Michael sighed. He knew if she was openly saying what she was thinking about how bad a situation was, it was definitely true.

"Don't interrupt me. Promise?" She said the last bit making it a question. We all nodded in agreement. "Okay good. I'll have to go in on my own at-"

"No way. Absolutely no way," Michael said shooting to his feet and slamming his hands down on the table.

"Hey, you promised," Taylor said. The rest of us had jumped but Taylor knew what was coming. Despite the fact she made him promise she knew he wouldn't stick to it. She probably just said it as something to use against him.

"I know but you didn't explain that you were going to say something so stupid."

Taylor made a face at him. Her intelligence was clearly something she didn't like being questioned. "If you'd let me finish." She raised her eyebrows at him until he sat down. "There's no way we'll all be able to get that close. But, although I will technically be on my own, you guys will know where I am at all times."

"How?" I asked. "I mean they're not going to fall for letting you keep your phone so we can find you. They're too smart for that."

"I wouldn't necessarily agree with that last part but you're right about the phone. That's why I've got this." She stood up and retrieved the bag that had caused all the trouble. It was clear she knew what she was looking for, she pulled it straight out and sat it on the table.

"So what is it?" Eve asked. All of us were thinking the exact same thing. To answer Eve's question she opened the case revealing a rather nasty looking needle.

"I see," Shane said smirking and said sarcastically, "You're trying to tell us you've got a drug problem. It's a bit of an effort to fabricate this whole cover story Tay. Shoulda just come clean. Literally."

She stuck her tongue out as Shane laughed at his own joke. It didn't faze him that he was the only one laughing, he was used to that. "This needle contains a microchip. It relays the information to this screen." She picked it up and pitched it to Michael. "Thus, you will now where I am. Every second."

"Are you saying you have to inject yourself with that?" Shane asked turning almost as pale as Eve and Michael.

"Yeah-"

"Ew. Ew. Ew," Eve kept repeating whilst covering her mouth with her hands, drowning it out a little.

"Eve, calm down," Taylor said. She sounded serious but her face was purely amused by Eve's freak out. "It'll be fine." Eve nodded but didn't look entirely convinced. "So Mikey, what do ya say?"

"See you phrase it as a question but you've already made up your mind, haven't you?" He was less bitter now. That was a good thing at the very least.

She winked at him and despite himself he smiled. They shared a look that seemed so private I had to look away. As did Shane and Eve, except Eve just looked sad. Poor thing.

"So," I said breaking their gaze. Eve might say she's okay with them but I knew deep down it was going to take time and she didn't deserve this agony. "Let's get on with it shall we?"

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><p><strong>I know, it's been too long. I'm sorry :3<strong>


	18. Predatory Instinct

Chapter Eighteen

Michael:

Eve, Shane and Claire all left the kitchen and headed upstairs after only some slight persuasion from me. Although Shane would deny it, hey were all quite squeamish and the very idea of what Taylor was about to do probably made them feel sick. To be quite honest, it even made me feel a bit queasy. I know, stupid coming from a big scary vampire. Taylor however clearly wasn't bothered.

"What?" she asked rather suddenly. She wasn't looking at me but the question was clearly directed at me. Not that it took a genius to work out because I was the only one in the room.

"What do you mean what?" I asked back.

"You were staring," she said and continued aimlessly fussing. Was I? I hadn't realised.

"Umm… I was just wondering if that hurts," I said quickly trying to cover it up.

"A little," she said holding the needle up and inspecting it with a frown. I knew what she was thinking. She was scared. Not because she had a phobia of needles or anything, oh no she was too tough for that, but because she was remembering being injected by 'the love of her life'.

"Let me do it," I said swiftly taking it out of her hands. She began to protest but I put my finger over her mouth to prevent her from talking.

"You can trust me."

She smiled sweetly and took my hand away. "I know. But," she said squeezing my hand. "There's going to be some blood." I looked down at the floor. Great, so I couldn't help the girl I loved because she thought I was going to drain her. "Don't look like that. I know that if I needed you to you could do it but there's no reason for you to be unnecessarily uncomfortable."

For a moment I was going to take her advice. Not because I was being selfish but because I was scared about hurting her. But then I saw a shadow of fear in her eyes and I realised I wasn't the scariest thing to her. "Nope. I'll definitely do it." I made her sit at the table and held her stare before I turned all my focus to keeping calm.

At first when the needle went in I was fine, although when I pulled it out it was a different story. The tiniest drop of blood was on the needle but it was enough to hit me like a train. I could feel my eyes slowly turning red. My breathing got heavier as I lusted for the scent of her blood to fill my lungs.

No! The predatory instinct inside me wanted to take control but I could not, would not, let that happen. Not now. Not to her. Not after all I'd worked for. Just as I was about to make a bolt for it she grabbed my arm and locked my gaze.

"You're thirsty," she said. "It's okay. I don't mind."

At first I was puzzled as to what she was saying? Then it clicked. She wanted me to drink from her. Was she crazy? Stupid question. Of course she was. It went against everything my body was telling me to do but I ripped my arm away and scrambled backwards. I pressed my back against the counter willing to get as much distance as possible.

Every part of me wanted to leave but I couldn't. I wanted her. Not in a way I've ever thought of her before. Never would I have thought I'd want to drink from my girl. I couldn't look away from her arm. Why was this happening? I'd been around blood before.

As if she was reading my mind she went on to answer my question. "Michael I'm sorry. Well… I'm not. I'm because I'm doing this to protect you."

I struggled to formulate words. "What do you?" I sounded like I was choking which would be impossible since I didn't need to breathe.

"That didn't contain a microchip," she said gesturing to the needle. "It contained a hormone that increases a vampire's blood lust. It should've made you attack me I can't understand why it hasn't."

"Why are you doing this?" I stammered. I watched her pick up and knife and crouch in front of me.

"Because if you get hurt I won't be able to live with myself. I love you more than anything. You should know that. I've told you enough. And this is why you're going to have to forgive me."

"Just go," I begged. "Please."

"I can't. I'm sorry." And with that moved her from over her neck, raised the knife and made a small cut.

It consumed me: the heat, her heartbeat and the crimson liquid running down her neck. No matter how much the niggling in my head told me not to I shot to my feet pushing her up against a wall.

She didn't resist or even try to scream which is why I felt no need to restrain her. One of my hands reinforced the back of her head and the other on one side of her neck as I sunk my extended teeth into her neck.

The pleasure was unimaginable! Never had I fed from a live human. Or any human for that matter. It was fantastic. This is why some vampires chose to hunt. No blood from a bottle could compare to this. Distantly I heard the girl say something. It sounded like she was saying 'I'm sorry'. She was sorry? For allowing me to drink from her.

I was irritated when I felt a niggling pain in my back. At first it stung and then it was burned. I retracted my fangs from the girl's neck and stumbled backwards. She was holding a needle. "I'm sorry," she said again.

She'd done something to me. I took a step towards her so I could reach her weapon but as soon as my weight shifted I crumpled to the floor. I told myself to get up, I was under attack but I couldn't. The girl sat down on the floor next to me and turned me over so that my head was in her lap. There was nothing I could do about it. Whatever she was going to do to me I couldn't stop here. I couldn't feel my body.

Instead of hurting me she started playing with my hair and fussing over me like a mother would to her child. "It's okay sweetie. You're okay. I'm so sorry. But you'll be fine soon." I tried to shout out for help. From someone, anyone but nothing. Instead my eyes just slowly began to close. She kissed the top of my head and said, "That's right baby, just go to sleep. You'll feel better when you wake up. I promise."

That was the last thing I heard…

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><p><strong>There's your next lot. As always, your feedback (good or bad) is welcomed and appreciated.<strong>

**Hope you're all well :)**


	19. Appalled

Chapter Nineteen

Taylor POV

Appalled. That was the only way to describe the way I was feeling. Appalled at myself and my actions. Michael had only ever tried to do the right thing. Not once since he had become a vampire had he fed from a human being and both he and I were proud of that. Of course I've never told him that, he only recently found out I knew but I was. And secretly, so was he. I could read him too well.

And I in the space of a couple of hours planning I had ruined that for him. Taken away his very admirable achievement and forced him to feed on me. I could try and justify that it was the right thing to do. That it was the only way to keep him out of harms way but as a result I'd just hurt him and weakened myself. Still, it was part of the plan. I needed a vampire bite to set things in motion and this killed two birds with one stone. Everything, down to waking Claire up, had been apart of my scheme. Realistically I was expecting them to have realised. They should've known that I'd never leave anything to chance like cleaning weapons in a kitchen. Given enough time though I'm sure they would've. That's why I had to act straight away.

I laid Michael's head as gently on the floor as I could manage and left the Glass house. It was pretty stupid going out in Morganville covered in blood but it had to be done. Despite telling the rest of them I was going to let them help, I had no intention on delivering on my promise. When I said I refused to watch anyone of them get hurt I really meant it. I loved them. Even little Claire who I barely knew.

"No!" I shouted out loud smacking the steering wheel at my stupidity. Emotions were what got me here in the first place and they weren't going to help me now. I took a deep breath and focused on what was ahead. I knew where Luke would be and with Luke, the rest of them. Morganville was a fairly difficult place to navigate but not for me. I could figure my way around blindfolded. Even Amelie didn't know this place as well as I did. I had the advantage of being human and trusted by others.

There was only one place that they'd be. They'd studied this place just like I had once upon a time. It was underground, deep underground where they wouldn't be disturbed or discovered by a lurking vampire. Oh no, they were too clever for that. Or so they thought. They were right, no one would discover them. Apart from me but of course they didn't know that yet. Or maybe they did. Either way, I didn't care. One way or another I was going to beat someone (hopefully numerous someones) to within an inch of their lives. Yeah… if only it was going to be that easy.

Shane POV:

The three of us left them to their discussion to give them some privacy. We figured they wouldn't take long. Ten minutes top and then we could regroup and pin down exactly what it was we were going to do. But ten minutes passed, then fifteen, then twenty.

We were in Eve's room and I was getting restless. Eve was rambling about a new brand of makeup she'd brought to Claire and I was pacing anxiously. Surely it couldn't take this long? "Shane cut it out!" Eve snapped. I stopped dead and shot her a stare. "You're going to wear a hole in my carpet."

"Shouldn't we go downstairs?" I asked ignoring her. Usually I'd be up for anything to ease the boredom, especially some confrontation with Eve but something just didn't feel right.

"No," Claire said. "They're probably just talking things out. It'll be good for them."

"Yeah I suppose. I'm going to go see if they're okay though." Claire looked curiously at me. "I'm just really bored. You two stay here." Eve needed no more encouragement to go back to talking and Claire regrettably went back to listening. That was my Claire. Too considerate of people's feeling to tell them when they needed to shut the hell up.

There was no sign of them in the living room so I figured they were still in the kitchen. I listened but I couldn't here anything. God please tell me they weren't eating each other's faces. That was the last thing I needed to see. I'd had enough of it growing up with them to last me a life time.

I creaked open the door slightly ready to make a swift exit if that was the case. However, no such luck. What I saw was not to of my best friends making out but instead one laid flat on his back on the floor. "Michael," I said swinging the door wide and falling to my knees next to him.

What had happened? Had they come here and somehow taken Taylor and subdued Michael without making a sound. This would have been my conclusion but a) I knew that they both would have put up some kind of fight and b) there was blood all around Michael's mouth and a trail leading to the back door. I froze.

He wouldn't, couldn't do that. But with the absence of Taylor I was left with no choice but to believe that. Shaking my head I tried to get myself to focus. I was going to yell out for the girl's but I decided against it. They didn't need to see this and despite what he may or may not have done, Michael was hurt and I needed to help him. I tried slapping him, shaking him but that didn't work. Then a thought occurred. There was definitely one thing that would help him.

With disgust written all over my face I went to the refrigerator and grabbed one of the darkened sports bottles. What pissed me off the most is that there were about six bottles in there. Why did he have to feed from her? I resisted the urge to throw it at him and knelt down again. Just opening the bottle did no good so against every instinct in my body telling me not to I opened his mouth and poured the liquid in.

I nearly gagged at the colour and had to look away. Thankfully, Michael gagged to as the blood hit his throat and his eyes snapped open. They were bright red He snatched the bottle away from me and began drinking himself. When it was empty he tossed it to one side and got to his feet. He sounded like he was in pain. Good, he was going to be a lot more.

When he was on his feet I pulled back and hit him square in the jaw making him fall to the floor. It showed just how weak he was. I couldn't understand why, he'd had more than his fair share of blood today. Bastard.

"Ow! What the hell man?" he asked surprised. He was laid flat on his back again but staring up at me now.

"I'm going to ask you this once," I said calmly. "Where is Taylor?"

"What do you- Oh my God!" he jumped to his feet and looked around the kitchen. He saw the blood and my face and punched a hole right through one of the walls. "Fuck!" he shouted slamming his fist in again creating a second.

Any other time I would've felt sympathy for my best friend in so much anger but right now I wanted to drive a stake through his heart not console him. "You didn't answer my question," I stated.

"I don't know," he said. He sounded do small. "All I remember is…"

"Go on," I pushed getting more furious by the second.

"She made me inject her with that needed. She said it didn't really contain a microchip but instead a hormone that increases a vampire's blood lust. I… I bit her. Oh my God, I bit Taylor." My hands started to shake. Hearing him say it was conformation and it made me want to inflict serious pain on him. "Don't," he said and at first I thought he was responding to my thoughts. "You could not possibly hate me more than I hate myself right now."

"I don't know about that," I said.

"Fine, you're angry. But whatever the situation Taylor's out there alone with no one to back her up. I give you full permission to do whatever you want to me after just please," he begged. "Please help me save her first."

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><p><strong>I know you probably want some action to go down and I'm getting there I promise. I just don't want to rush anything and it end up being something that doesn't really make sense. Just bare with me :)<strong>


	20. Apology

Chapter Twenty

Taylor POV:

The first part was simple. I needed to ditch the car far enough that no one would come looking but close enough that I could get there fast. With the keys still in the engine I left the car, door wide open. With any luck someone would take it and the risk of me being found would be even lower.

I felt a little light headed. Well that was what happened when you lost rather a lot of blood I guess. My body really was taking a beating these past couple of days. If I got out of this I'd need some serious rest and a hot bubble bath. If not, what was more restful than death?

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><p><strong>I know this is the tiniest little thing ever but I needed an excuse to explain myself. I'm sorry that I've been rubbish at updating but it's my last couple of months at school and I've been studying a lot which means writing's taken a back seat. I'm gonna try and get back into the swing of things and the next chapter should be up by the end of the weekend. I'm so sorry it's taking me so long.<strong>


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